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Dropped Stitches 



-IN- 



TENNESSEE HISTORY. 



BY 

JOHN ALLISON. 



MARSHALL, & BRUCE CO., 
NASHVILLE. 



C^UMZ 



■US 



Entered according to Act of Cougress, in the year 1897, 

Bt John Allison, 

in the oflace of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



By transfei 

OCT 11 19^5 



DEDICATION. 



To THE Memory of My Mother, 

WHO, WHEN I WAS BUT A YOUTH, 

FIRST INTERESTED ME IN AND TAUGHT ME MUCH 

OP THE 

Early History 

OP THE 

PIONEERS OF MY NATIVE STATE. 



PREFACE. 



This little volume, as will appear to the reader, is not a history of anything nor 
of anybody, and is not so intended. The whole is simply an effort to put together in 
readable form some facts in the very earliest history of Tennessee not hitherto fully 
shown, if even mentioned. 

I was born and brought up at Jonesboro, in Washington county, Tennessee, and 
resided there until 1889. 

My mother, when I was a mere boy, first interested me in and taught me much 
about the pioneers and early history of my native state. Following up much learned 
from her, I frequently visited old gentlemen and aged ladies in Eastern Tennessee 
and a few in North ( 'arolina, and conversed with them about " old times " and their 
early lives, and from them obtained much information not to be gotten in any other 
way. By a formal order of the County Court of Washington county, made many 
years ago, I was given custody and possession of the very earliest court records 
made at Jonesboro (records from 1778 up to 1800, as I now remember), and had pos- 
session of them for two or three years, and at odd times went through and copied 
much from these old records. I had, however, become interested in, and read much, 
from these court records before the order of the court giving me possession of them, 

I made, as best I could, orisinal investigation as to facts plainly suggested by the 
proceedings of the courts, as to the men who constituted the court, their lives, 
character, etc., and also as to the events surrounding, or involved in, the entries as 
indicated by the substance of the " motions," " orders," etc. 

Where authorities consulted and information obtained in my original investiga- 
tion have conflicted as to a date, I have given that which seemed most probably the 
correct one: where no date at all could be found or fixed, I have followed the "il- 
lustrious example of distinguished historians," and said, "about this time" — with- 
out giving any date at all. 

By permission of my long, long time scholarly friend, Dr. R. L. C. White, the 
author, I publish with the volume "A Centennial Dream " with the Key thereto. 
The " dream " and interpretation are put in an appendix, for the reason that I can 
not copyright either. 

Dr. White's " Centennial Dream " has suggested, in fewer words, more Tennessee 
history than any publication heretofore made, and, as hundreds of persons can 
testify, has excited more interest, and caused more thorough investigation, in Early 
History of Tennessee, than any book or paper hitherto written on the subject. 
It will live as an attractive, proficient instructor and teacher of the history of the 
" Volunteer State " after he has " crossed over the river " and is at " rest under the 
■hade of the trees." 

All who read the dream and key to it will appreciate the obligation I am under 
to Dr. White. 



CONTENTS. 



I. Andrew Jackson, Attoritet at Law 1 

II. The Pickets op Citilization 15 

III. A Unique Court 38 

IV. A Tragic Episode 60 

V. Early Tennksseb Legislation 69 

"VI. MiRO, ALIAS "Mbro" 86 

VII. Andrew Jackson as a "Sport" 100 

VIII. Jackson's Duel with Avert ; 110 

IX. Andrew Jackson, Deputy Sheriff and Fireman 119 

X. Andrew Jackson, the Man 135 

"A Centennial Dream" 136 

Interpretation op the "Dream" 143 

Index 151 



DROPPED STITCHES 



Tennessee History. 



CHAPTER I. 

ANDREW JACKSON, ATTORNEY AT LAW. 

MOST English-reading people, as well as many of those who 
read history written in other languages, are familiar with 
the life and deeds of General and President Andrew 
Jackson; and very many people in the United States know 
of Senator and Judge Andrew Jackson. Few, however, are 
acquainted with young Andrew Jackson, Esq., attorney at 
law, of Jonesboro, then (1788-9) the county-seat of Washing- 
ton county. North Carolina. They are all one and the same 
personage; and it can truthfully be said that there is a still 
smaller number who know anything whatever about the lead- 
ing and dominating characteristics of the people among whom 
young Andrew Jackson really began life, at Jonesboro, in what 
is now Washington county, Tennessee, 

Most of Jackson's biographers, and nearly all of those who 
have written and spoken about him, make him begin his busi- 
ness and professional life at Nashville, in the fall of the year 
1788. John Reid, in his ' ' Life of Andrew Jackson " (published 
in 1817), says that Jackson, on reaching the settlement on the 
Holston river, near Jonesboro, remained there until October, 
1788, when he left and went to Nashville, arriving at the latter 



2 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

place during the same month. Jenkins, in his ' ' Life of Gen- 
eral Jackson" (published in 1850), says that Jackson reached 
Nashville in October, 1788. Parton, in his " Life of Jackson " 
(published in 1860), says: " Upon the settlement of the difficul- 
ties between North Carolina and her western counties (1788), 
John McNairy, a friend of Jackson's, was appointed judge of 
the Superior Court for the Western District, and Jackson was 
invested with the office of solicitor or prosecutor for the same 

district Thomas Searc}', another of Jackson's 

friends, received the appointment of clerk of the court. 
Before the end of October, 1788, the long train of immigrants, 
among whom was Mr. Solicitor Jackson, reached Nti>-:iville, to 
the great joy of the settlers there. " 

The distinguished historians are all in error in all of these 
statements. There was no Superior Court at Nashville at this 
date. The act of the general assembly of North Carolina, pro- 
viding for or establishing a Superior Court of Law and Equity 
for the counties of Davidson, Sumner and Tennessee, was not 
passed until November, 1788. The act passed at Fayetteville, 
in that month, ' ' erected the counties of Davidson, Sumner and 
Tennessee into a district for the holding of Superior Courts of 
Law and Equity therein, by the name of Mero. " The first 
volume of the original record of the minutes of the Superior 
Court of Law and Equity for the district of AVashington — then 
the "Western District" — at Jonesboro, shows that David 
Campbell alone held that court from the February term, 1788 
(which was the first term), until the February term, 1789, at 
which latter term the record shows that Judge McNairy appeared 
and sat with Judge Campbell. The same volume shoAvs that, 
at the Februar}- term, 1788, and on the first da}' of the term, 
Francis Alexander Ramse}^ was appointed and qualified as clerk 
of the court, and that ' 'Archibald Roan was appointed Attorney 



Andrew Jackson, Attorney at Law. 3 

to prosecute on behalf of the State," on the first day of the 
term, but that he resigned on the following day; "whereupon, 
William Sharp, Esq. is appointed in his room." Sharp con- 
tinued to act as prosecuting attorney until February, 1790, 
when, as the record shows, he was succeeded by William 
Cocke. The same volume has this entry: "August Term 

1 788. John McNairy Esq. produced a License to practice as 
an Attorney in the several Courts within this State with a cer- 
tificate from the Clerk of the Court for the District of Salis- 
bury that he has taken the oaths necessary for his qualification 
as an attorney whereupon he is admitted to Practice in this 
Court." 

The Superior Court of Law and Equity for the Mero District 
was not formally organized and opened until late in the year 

1789, when John McNairy was appointed judge of that court. 
Under the territorial form of government provided by Con- 
gress, in May, 1790, for "the territory of the United States of 
America south of the river Ohio," the President appointed 
three attorneys for the territory — one for Washington District, 
one for Hamilton District and one for the "Mero District." 
Andrew Jackson was appointed in and for the "District of 
Mero," and I have not been able to find any evidence whatever 
that he held any office whatever prior to this appointment. It 
is doubtful whether he ever received any compensation from 
the government of the United States for the services rendered 
as attorney of the ' ' Mero District ; " for, at the first session of 
the third general assembly of Tennessee, an act was passed, 
October 26, 1799, the second section of which is as follows: 
"Be it enacted, that the sum of four hundred dollars shall be 
and the same is hereby appropriated for the payment of the 
sum due Andrew Jackson, as a full compensation for his serv- 
ices as Attorney General for the District of Mero under the 



4 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

territorial government." Andrew Jackson never accepted 
payment twice for the same service. 

Section 1 of the same act appropriates two hundred doHars 
"to Archibald Roane, as full compensation for services as 
Attorney General for the District of Hamilton under the terri- 
torial government. " 

Jackson did not arrive at Nashville until the fall of the year 
1789 or the spring of 1790 — most probably the latter. He 
" settled" in Jonesboro, in what was then Washington county, 
North Carolina, and is now Washington county, Tennessee, 
in the earl}^ part of the spring of 1788. He probably came 
from Morganton, North Carolina, across the range of mount- 
ains to Jonesboro, as early in the spring as the melting 
snow and ice made such a trip over the Appalachians possible. 
From Morganton to Jonesboro, by the trail or route then 
travelled, was more than one hundred miles, iwo-thirds of 
which, at that time, was without a single human habitation 
along its course. As emigration from east of the mountains 
to "the new world west of the Alleghanies " was considerable 
about this period, it is quite possible that Judge McNairy and 
others came at the same time ; but who thej' all were, and the 
exact date of their arrival in Jonesboro, is not known. 

On the old record books of the minutes of the proceedings of 
the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions kept at Jonesboro will 
be found the following entry: " State of North Carolina Wash- 
ington County, Monday the Twelfth day of May Anno Domini 
One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty Eight. Andrew 
Jackson Esq. came into Court and Produced a license as an 
Attorney With A Certificate sufficiently Attested of his Taking 
the Oaths Necessary to said office and Was admitted to Practiss 
as an Attorney in this County Court." The entr}^ immediately 
preceding recites that "Archibald Roane, David Allison, and 



Andrew Jackson, Attorney at Law. 5 

Joseph Hamilton Esquires Produced sufficient Licenses to 
Practise as Attorneys and were admitted," etc. ; and the entry 
immediately following recites that ' 'John McNairey Produced 
a license as an Attorney, " etc. , and ' ' was admitted to Practiss 
as an attorney," etc. 

Thus this old record shows the admission to the bar, on the 
same day, in the one-story log court-house, twenty-four - feet 
square, at Jonesboro, of five young men. 

Jackson's promotion from one office to another, until he 
reached the highest and most exalted office on earth, the Pres- 
idency of the United States, is known to all ; but that ' ' Twelfth 
day of May Anno Domini One Thousand Seven Hundred and 
Eight)' Eight " must have been a lucky day, or there must have 
been good material in those young men — for Andrew Jackson 
was not the only one of them who attained eminence. Jack- 
son was first United States attorney for the " District of Mero," 
but Roane held the same office at the same time in the Hamil- 
ton District, while McNairy presided over both of them as 
federal judge for "the territory of the United States of Amer- 
ica south of the river Ohio." Jackson met both McNairy and 
Roane as fellow delegates in the constitutional convention for 
Tennessee, in 1796. Jackson was afterward a judge of the 
Superior Court of Law and Equity, but so were both McNairy 
and Roane — and this, too, before Jackson reached the" bench, 
they having been elected at the first session of the first general 
assembly of Tennessee, in April, 1796, before the state had 
been formally admitted into the Union by act of Congress. 
Their decisions, however, were never called into question on 
that ground. 

In 1797, McNairy was appointed a district judge of the Fed- 
eral Court in Tennessee, which position he held continuously 
until his death in 1831 or 1832, leaving his reputation as a 



6 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

wise and just judge and an upright man as a heritage to Ten- 
nesseans. 

Roane resigned his judgeship in June, 1801, and was elected 
Governor of Tennessee in the following August. On retiring 
from the office of Governor, after having served two years, he 
remained in private life until 1811, when he was appointed 
circuit judge. Thereafter — in October, 1815 — he was again 
appointed to the Superior Court bench, where he remained 
until April or May, 1818, and then retired from public service, 
honored and esteemed. 

David Allison was commissioned ' ' Master of the Rolls and 
Clerk in Equity of the Superior Court of Law and Equity " for 
Washington District at Jonesboro, by Judges Samuel Spencer 
and David Campbell, in August, 1788. He held this office for 
about two years, resigning in 1790, when he went to the settle- 
ment on the Cumberland — now Nashville — and engaged, I be- 
lieve, in the mercantile business. 

Joseph Hamilton disappears entirely from the court records 
and proceedings at Jonesboro, and I have been able only to trace 
him elsewhere, as Clerk of the County Court of Caswell county, 
State of Franklin, 1785, and when he was appointed by the 
territorial Governor and Council to aid in runnina; and marking 
the lines of Knox and Jefferson counties, when they were es- 
tablished in 1792, and where he was appointed one of the Trus- 
tees of Greeneville College in 1794. 

It was while Roane was Governor, in 1802, that the memor- 
able contest between John Sevier and Andrew Jackson, for the 
position of Major General of militia in Tennessee, occurred. 
It was no empty and meaningless honor to hold this position 
then in the state — as subsequent events demonstrated. Under 
the terms of the constitution, the Major General was elected by 
the field officers of the militia. When the votes which had 



Andrew Jackson, Attorney at Law. 7 

been cast were counted, there was found to be a tie between 
Jackson and Sevier. The Governor, by virtue of his oflSce, 
was commander-in-chief of the militia. He was therefore a 
field officer, and as such was entitled to cast, and did cast, the 
deciding vote between these two great commanders. Governor 
Roane gave his vote for Jackson, and Jackson thus became 
Major General of militia in Tennessee, which led him up to the 
victory he gained over the British at New Orleans, and this 
victory eventually made him President of the United States. 
If Roane had voted for Sevier? — I am a Presbyterian. 

Roane was a candidate for re-election to the office of Gov- 
ernor, in August, 1803. John Sevier was a candidate against 
him, and defeated him, notwithstanding the fact that Roane 
had the earnest and active support of Jackson. Jackson and 
Roane combined could not beat Sevier before the people, 
although the latter had been three times Governor theretofore. 
Roane, as before stated, remained in private life until 1811. 
Sevier was twice elected Governor after having defeated Roane, 
and remained in public service almost continuously until his 
death in September, 1815. To give in detail the various 
offices with which John Sevier was honored, every one of 
which he honored in turn, would be foreign to the subject. He 
filled every office known to the statutes — and some which were 
unknown — except two: he was never a Senator in Congress 
nor a judge of any of the Superior Courts. (He was not a 
lawyer. ) Nothing that could be said on the subject would add 
to this evidence of the confidence the people had in him, and 
of their faith in and affection for the man. 

Jackson had attained to the age of twenty-one years on the 
15th of March preceding the entry above quoted, admitting 
him to the bar in Washington county. He may have been 
formally admitted at Salisbury or Morganton, North Carolina, 



8 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

but he did not in fact open an office or enter upon the practice 
of law at either place. The order admitting him to the bar at 
Jonesboro, therefore, may be accepted and regarded as the 
opening entry in the business life and the professional and 
political career of this, one of the greatest of all Americans. 

These old court records at Jonesboro disclose the fact that 
Jackson was in the town and in attendance on the Court of 
Pleas and Quarter Sessions, at its November term, 1788. Un- 
der the law at that time, bills of sale of slaves and horses and 
deeds to land had to be proven in the court mentioned. A 
bill of sale was presented to this court by Jackson, at its 
November term, 1788. This bill of sale is given below, for 
reasons hereafter to be stated. It is as follows: "A Bill of 
Sale from Micajah Crews to Andrew Jackson, Esquire for A 
Negroe Woman named Nancy about eighteen or twenty years 
of Age was Proven in Open Court by the Oath of David Alli- 
son a Subscribing Witness and Ordered to be Recorded." 

The court records for the years 1788 and 1789, kept in. 
Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Hawkins counties, establish 
the fact that Jackson was practising law in those counties 
during the two years mentioned. He could not, in the very 
nature of things, have attended court in those counties, if he 
had been residing at Nashville or practising law in Davidson, 
Sumner and Tennessee counties, which at that time constituted 
the " District of Mero. " 

It has been stated without qualification by some writers that 
Jackson was present in Morganton, North Carolina, when Gov- 
ernor John Sevier escaped from the authorities there and returned 
to " the western waters." Parton says that "Jackson may have 
witnessed the celebrated rescue of Governor Sevier, as, about 
the time of its occurrence in 1788, he was at Morganton, on a 
visit to Colonel Waightstill Avery, on his way to the western 



Andrew Jackson, Attorney at Law. 9 

wilds of Tennessee." Sevier, for having organized and been 
elected Governor of the "lost state of Franklin," was arrested 
near Jonesboro, in October, 1788, and taken to Morganton; 
but there was no such "celebrated rescue " or escape of Sevier 
as that pictured in the various accounts of this affair which 
have been given. Sevier, on reaching Morganton, was met by 
Generals Charles McDowell and Joseph McDowell, who became 
his bondsmen until he could make a visit to a brother-in-law 
who resided some miles from the town. Sevier made this visit, 
returning to Morganton on the second day after leaving, and 
reported to the sheriff of Burke county, who permitted him to 
go where he pleased without requiring bond. In the meantime, 
Sevier's two sons, James and John, together with Major Evans, 
Mr. Crosby and probably others from "the western waters," 
had arrived in Morganton; and, in consequence of what was 
then told to Sevier by his sons and friends (which need not be 
stated here), he left Morganton, quietlj' and openly, in broad 
day, and returned with them immediately to Washington 
county. All of these occurrences took place during the month 
of October, 1788; and Jackson could not have been, during 
this month, in Morganton, in Jonesboro and in Nashville. He 
was, as before stated, at Jonesboro, familiarizing himself with 
the country and getting acquainted with the people in the coun- 
ties mentioned. 

It has been written of Jackson that he came into the < ' new 
settlements" on foot, or that he walked from Morganton to 
Jonesboro. This is incorrect. More than twenty-five years 
ago, the writer made it his business to investigate the truth of 
that statement, and also other incidents and facts in reference 
to the early life of Jackson while he made his home at Jones- 
boro. There were then living in Washington and the surround- 
ing counties several aged native-born citizens who had known 



10 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

Jackson personally, and who had heard much concerning him. 
These old gentlemen, who ranged in age around eighty-five 
years, delighted to talk of what the}' knew and had heard of 
Jackson when he came to Jonesboro, and while he lived there 
during the years 1788 and 1789. All that has been or will be 
stated herein is from notes of conversations had with them, and 
either taken literally from or based on the old court records at 
Jonesboro. From these sources of information it can be 
asserted as truth that Jackson arrived in Jonesboro riding one 
horse and leading another; that the horse he was riding was a 
"race horse;" that he had a pair of "holsters" (pistols) 
buckled across the front of his saddle; and that on the led 
horse was a shot gun, a " pack" and a well-filled pair of sad- 
dle-bags, while following after him and by his side was a goodly 
pack of foxhounds. This is an inventory of his personal be- 
longings, as given me by at least three of these old gentlemen, * 
each of whom had known Jackson personally, and had heard the 
story of his arrival in the community repeated often by fathers, 
mothers and others. It is reasonable to infer that he had 
some money also, or he could not, within a few months after 
his arrival, have purchased the slave shown, by the bill of sale 
set out above, to have been bought by him. The price of such 
a slave as that described was at that time about three hundred 
dollars. When one of the old gentlemen referred to was told 
by me that it had been said and "published " that Jackson had 
come to Jonesboro "afoot," he fired up and his eyes fairly 
sparkled as he exclaimed: "GoodGrod! Jackson never walked 
anywhere from necessity. He came here riding a race-horse 
and leading another first-rate horse. " 

Jackson made his home, while he remained in the eastern 

* Major Bird Brown, Abram Taylor and John Allison. 



Andrew Jackson, Attorney at Law. 11 

part of what is now Tennessee, at the house of Christopher Tay- 
lor (father of Abram Taylor, before mentioned), about one 
mile west of Jonesboro, on the road that led from the town to 
the "Brown settlement" on the Nolichucky river. The old 
house is still standing, and can be seen from the passing trains 
on the Southern railway. A view of it, as it appeared some 
years ago, is given. 

Christopher Taylor was a slaveholder and a large landowner, 
and had some race-horses which were fairly good for the times, 
together with a pack of the "finest and fastest hounds" in the 
country. While every one knew that Jackson was a devotee of 
the race-course, a lover of the chase and not averse to a cock- 
fight, still he was admired and esteemed by all, from the time 
he came into the country. 

It is not probable that he had a law-office in Jonesboro, the 
tradition being that he received and consulted with his clients 
at Christopher Taylor's, when court was not in session. When 
he was consulted by«a client, his first effort was to compromise 
or adjust the ditTerence, if possible; failing in this, he was 
most stubborn and unrelenting on behalf of his client, never, 
however, resorting to anj-thing not in keeping with the strictest 
rules of propriety and fairness, and always courteous, manly 
and open in his bearing toward court, jury and opposing coun- 
sel, and exacting from every one the most respectful and cour- 
teous treatment, whether in court, at the race-course or else- 
where. He never insinuated anything — he spoke it out plainly. 
He despised deceit and treachery, and he held in the highest 
esteem the bold, open loyalty of a man to a friend or a convic- 
tion. He loathed any man who was guilty of a little mean, or 
mean little, act. He had a profound contempt for the narrow- 
minded and penurious or niggardly man. He himself was not 
extravagant, but his heart and hand seemed to open sponta- 



12 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

neously to a deserving object of chanty. Strange to say, while 
he did not know what fear was, he was often heard to express 
great sympathy for cowards or the timid, and he would never 
allow such an one to be imposed on in his presence. 

It is not necessary to recite evidence or narrate circumstances 
to show that such a man as Jackson had the most exalted opin- 
ion of woman, and that he was always her champion and de- 
fender; but an incident which occurred at Rogersville, in Haw- 
kins county, will be related here. A most estimable widow 
kept the "tavern" at Rogersville. Her house was generally 
full during court week. One day, a stranger came into the 
public or reception room, shortly before supper, and asked for 
entertainment or a room. The landlady in person showed him 
a room, with two or three beds in it, and told him that he 
could, if he wished, occupy that room with two other gentle- 
men, having a bed to himself, explaining that, on account of 
it being court week, her house was so crowded that she could 
not give him a separate room. The stranger was not pleased 
with this arrangement, and so told the landlady. As they re- 
turned to the public room, the stranger, just as they entered it, 
made some insolent remark about a country and a town which 
could not afford a gentleman a separate room. Jackson, who 
was sitting in the room, heard the remark. Springing to his 
feet, he seized the stranger by the arm, exclaiming, ' ' Come 
with me, sir — I'll find a separate room and bed for you! " The 
stranger, observing Jackson's tone and manner, hesitated, and 
asked him what he meant. The only answer he received was, 
"Come on, sir!" and he reluctantly went with Jackson, who 
was still holding him by the arm. Jackson took his captive 
out the "back way," and brought him up in front of a corn- 
crib, in which were some corn and shucks. Opening the door 
of the crib, he commanded the stranger to "climb in," at the 



Andrew Jackson, Attorney at Law. 13 

same time displa3'ing in his right hand an argument that so 
overcame all desire of resistance that prompt obedience was 
the immediate result. The stranger "climbed in," apologizing 
and begging at the same time, and Jackson closed the door 
upon him. After looking at his prisoner for some minutes 
with great satisfaction, Jackson asked him if he was willing to 
go back to the house, apologize to the landlady, and accept the 
room which she had offered him. The stranger readily ex- 
pressed his willingness to do this, which he did, and so the in- 
cident closed. 

In going from Jonesboro to the courts in Grreene, Hawkins 
and Sullivan counties, Jackson always took with him his shot- 
gun, holsters and saddlebags, and very often his hounds, so 
that he was always ready to join in a deer chase or a fox hunt. 
He was an unerring marksman, and was always the centre of 
attraction at the " shooting matches," at which the prizes were 
quarters of beef, turkeys and deer. He would dismount any- 
where on these trips, in order to participate in such a contest; 
and messengers were frequently sent from remote parts of the 
settlements, inviting him to come out and join in a hunt or a 
"shooting match." He invariably accepted such invitations. 

In those early days, when a new settler came into the com- 
munity, or a 3'oung man married, as soon as the place for the 
"clearing" and the erection of a cabin was fixed upon, the 
neighbors "gathered in," and they had what was called a 
"house raising" and a " barn raising. " They felled the trees, 
hewed the logs and built the house and barn — all in one day, 
or in two daj^s at most. It was said that Jackson attended 
more of these house and barn "raisings" than any other one 
man in the country. They usually wound up with a fox hunt, 
a deer chase or a shooting match. He was said to have been 
"a horseman without an equal, the boldest and most fearless 



14 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

rider that had ever crossed the Alleghanies. " He would ford 
or swim his horse through a river wherever he came to it, if he 
wished to get to the opposite side. His aggressiveness and 
restlessness were often the subject of remark, and led to the 
opinion, which was freely expressed, that if ever there was a 
war, he would be a great general. 

He began life among people who had views and opinions of 
their own on all questions of the day and subjects of public in- 
terest ; yet his judgment was consulted and his views sought on 
almost all public affairs, notwithstanding his youth. He was 
recognized from the first as a man who ' ' would fight at the drop 
of a hat, and drop iLie hat himself"; but in all the personal 
difficulties which he had while he resided in Washington county, 
save ome — a duel with Col. Averj^ an account of which will be 
given in another chapter— public opinion was generally largely 
in his favor. 

It may, and it should, be interesting to those who love and 
revere the memory of Andrew Jackson to know something of 
the life, habits and characteristics of the people among whom 
he first settled at Jonesboro, as well as of those with whom he 
afterwards made his permanent home at Nashville ; for what- 
ever can be said to the credit and glory of either the early set- 
tlers on the Watauga or those upon the Cumberland can be 
truthfully said of the others. Therefore, a brief account of the 
dominating characteristics of the people among whom he first 
settled will be given. This will, it is believed, throw some light 
on the formation of Jackson's character, methods and course 
throughout his life. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PICKETS OF CIVILIZATION. 

THE first settlers in Tennessee: what did they do? 
They founded and administered the first free and inde- 
pendent government in America. They established the 
first church, the first institution of learning, and the second 
newspaper, in "the new world west of the Alleghanies. " 

They were in the wilderness. The hour of the daj- was de- 
termined by the shadow cast by the sun upon the home-made 
dial; the time of the night was reckoned from the positions of 
particular stars in the firmament. Years and months they 
measured by moons. From the course, color and velocity of 
clouds, from the temperature and from the direction of the 
winds, they foretold the weather. They also observed the habits 
of animals and birds of passage, as aids to their weather bureau ; 
and they watched and studied closely the development and 
growth of plants, herbs, vines, vegetables and the cereals, as 
helps to their agricultural department. * 

The country in which Andrew Jackson made his home for 
about two j'ears deserves a name and place in history not yet 
fully given to it. In its wild and picturesque magnificence, in 
the rugged honesty and frank simplicity of the people who set- 
tled it, in their love and struggle for liberty, "home rule" and 
local self-government, it was a counterpart of the Switzerland 
of tradition and story. 

The sun shone nowhere upon a land of more ravishing love- 
liness and awe-inspiring sublimity — silver threads of river and 

* The almanac-groundhog and goose-bone theories were adopted by a later and 
wiser generation. 



16 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

streamlet, and gem of valley set in emerald of gorgeous luxuri- 
ance; waters murmuring and thunderous, striking every note 
in the gamut of nature's weird minstrelsy, dashing and bound- 
ing to the sea; every acclivity a Niagara of color flashing from 
rhododendron and mountain magnolia, el3'sian fields without 
Rhenish castles or Roman towers ; grooved with fastnesses, ter- 
raced with plateaus and mouumented with peaks upheaved 
into a very dreamland of beauty and grandeur, all overlooked 
by the majestic Roan — 

" The monarch of mouutains — 
They crowned him long ago, 
On a throne of rock, in a robe of clouds, 
With a diadem of snow! " 

About one hundred and thirty years ago, the first permanent 
white settlement was made on the Watauga river, near where 
Elizabeth ton now stands. Up to the winter of 1770-1, there 
were in all probability twenty families in the new settlement. 

May 16, 1771, the "Regulators" fought the famous but dis- 
astrous battle of the Alamance, about forty miles northwest of 
Raleigh. During the summer and fall following this battle, 
settlers came in considerable numbers to ' ' the new world west 
of the Alleghanies, " and cast their lot with the settlers on the 
Watauga; and about this time settlements were made on the 
Holston and Nolichucky rivers. 

Who were these people? Whence and why did they come? 
I answer: 

They were every one patriots, soldiers and good citizens. 
They came from the battlefield of the Alamance — that first con- 
test of the revolution which eventuated in American independ- 
ence. They left their homes because of the disastrous result 
of that battle, in which many of them had participated, and be- 
cause of their unconquerable hatred of the British government 



The Pickets of Civilization. l7 

and their open revolt against British authority and the oppres- 
sion of British officials. 

The following letter from Hon. George Bancroft, the histo- 
rian, then Minister from the United States to Great Britain, on 
the subject of the "Mecklenburg Resolves," and the subsequent 
course and conduct of some of those engaged in the battle of 
the Alamance, is still of great interest to Tennesseans: 

90 Eaton Place, LoNnoN, July 4, 1848. 

My Dear Sir — I hold it of good augury that your letter of 
the 12th of June reached me by the Herman just in time to be 
answered this morning. You may be sure that I have spared no 
pains to discover the Resolves of the Committee of Mecklen- 
burg. A glance at the map will show you that in those days 
the traffic in that part of North Carolina took a southerly direc- 
tion, and people in Charleston, and sometimes in Savannah, 
knew what was going on in ' Charlotte Town ' before Gov. 
Martin. The first account of the Resolves extraordinary, ' by 
the people in Charlotte Town, Mecklenburg County, ' was sent 
over by Sir James Wright, then Governor of Georgia, in a let- 
ter of the 20th of June, 1775. The newspaper thus transmit- 
ted is still preserved, and is the number 498 of the South Car- 
olina Gazette and Country Journal, Tuesday, June 13, 1775. 
I read the Resolves, you may be sure, with reverence, and im- 
mediately obtained a copy of them, thinking myself the sole 
discoverer. I do not send you the copy, as it is identically the 
same with the paper you enclosed to me, but I forward to you 
a transcript of the entire letter of Sir James Wright. The 
newspapers seem to have reached him after he had finished his 
dispatch, for the paragraph relating to it is added in his own 
handwriting, the former part being written hj a secretary. I 
have read a great many papers relating to the Regulators, and 
am having copies made of a large number. Your own state 
ought to have them all, and the expense would be, for the state, 
insignificant, if it does not send an agent on purpose. A few 
hundred dollars would copy all you need from the State Paper 
Office on all North Carolina topics. The Regulators are on 
many accounts important. They form the connecting link be- 
tween the resistance to the Stamp Act and the movement of 
1775, and they also played a glorious part in taking possession 
of the Mississippi Valley, toward which they were irresistibly 
carried by their love of independence. It is a mistake if any 



18 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

have supposed that the Regulators were cowed down by their 
defeat at Alamance. Like the mammoth, they shook the bolt 
from their brow and crossed the mountains. 

I shall always be glad to hear from you and to be of use to 
you or your State. Very truly yours, 

George Bancroft. 

D. L. Swain, Esq. , Chapel Hill, N. C. 

One of the " ringleaders " in organizing the Regulators for 
the battle of the Alamance was John Pugh, who was afterwards 
sheriff of Washington county, which at that time included all 
of the territory now embraced within the boundaries of the state 
of Tennessee. Among the few names of the participants in the 
battle of the Alamance which have been preserved in history 
may be found those of several who were afterwards prominent 
among the settlers on Watauga, Holston and Nolichucky. I 
have said this much because of some facts which will be given 
further along. 

These people were on the very verge of the frontier, standing 
as a mere handful of pickets out on the confines of civilization, 
where the war-whoop of the painted savage rang through the 
forests, and the constant apprehension of the tomahawk and 
the scalping-knife haunted every abode, and every thicket am- 
bushed a bloodthirsty foe. When open daring failed, fiendish 
cunning, the torch and midnight butcherj' wrought the ruin. 
Atrocity followed atrocity, in the utter extinction of homes. 
Men hunted, fished, toiled, slept and worshipped with their 
trusty rifles at hand. The women also, through necessity and 
with courage inspired by constant peril, were no less dextrous 
in the use of deadly weapons, and no less unerring in the pre- 
cision of their aim. The very genius of evil and desolation 
seemed at times to brood over the infant settlements. Still, 
they prospered; and, amid their dangers, they followed indus- 
trial pursuits. The creaking clang of the loom and the whir 



The Pickets of Civilization. 19 

of the spinning-wheel furnished the "accompaniment to the 
maiden's concord of measured monotones." The woodman's 
axe felled the forest trees, and fields and farms were opened 
up, fenced and put in cultivation. Churches and schools were 
established, and public highways "viewed out" and opened up 
in the wilderness. 

Among the wealthiest the wheaten cake appeared only at the 
Sabbath breakfast. Milk and" spring water were their only 
drinks at meals. The red deer flitted through the voiceless 
solitudes, and bruin roamed the jungles at will. The fruits of 
the chase and the fishing-rod, together with pounded maize, 
supplied the wholesome comforts of the hospitable board. 
Quilting bees, log rollings, house raisings, corn shuckings, flax 
pullings, maple sugar boilings and the innocent abandon of the 
dance, enlivened with brimming gourds of nectared dew and 
the high fun and mirth of backwoods "social functions," gave 
variety and zest to the monotony of frontier life. 

Maid and matron were clad in fabrics of their own handi- 
work, each a Joan of Arc in moral and physical prowess and 
power, and a Venus in rounded symmetry and development, with 
all the unaffected graces of natural and unspoiled womanhood, 
' ' the red wine of lusty life mantling and blushing in the ala- 
baster face " ; the men garbed in skins or the coarsest textures of 
the loom, athletic of limb and fleet of foot as the roe, more than 
a match for all the cunning stratagems of Indian warfare, ' ' lion- 
hearted to dare and win, and yet with gentleness and generosity 
to melt the soul. " 

The log structure rose in the wilderness, with puncheon floor, 
slab benches, port-hole windows and rifle-rack, in whose cribbed 
and darkened shrine alternated the thunderous vociferations of 
the fire-and-brimstone preacher and the cries of the truant urchin 
under the savage birch of the pitiless schoolmaster. 



20 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

These people were without any local form of civil government, 
without executive, military, civil or peace officers ; but they had 
among them John ScAder, Isaac Shelby, James Robertson and 
others, who kept the good of the community at heart. It will 
be remembered that there has been much controversy, at times 
in the not very distant past, as to when, where and by whom 
the first declaration of a free and independent government was 
made and entered into on this continent — some claiming that 
Mecklenburg, North Carolina, was the place, its citizens the 
people, and May, 1775, the date; others asserting that the as- 
sociation formed for Kentucky, ' ' under the great elm tree out- 
side the fort at Boonsboro" — this also in 1775 — was the first. 
I propose to show that neither one of these associations, decla- 
rations or formations of government was the first ' ' free and in- 
dependent government" established on this continent; but that 
this honor belongs to the settlers on the Watauga. Haywood, 
in his history of Tennessee (page 41), says: "In 1772 (May), 
the settlement on the Watauga, being without government, 
formed a written association and articles for their conduct. 
They appointed five commissioners, a majority of whom was to 
decide all matters of controversy, and to govern and direct for 
the common good in other respects"; and again (page 46): 
"This committee settled all private controversies, and had a 
clerk, Felix Walker, now or lately a member of Congress from 
North Carolina. They had also a sherifT. This committee had 
stated and regular times for holding their sessions, and took 
the laws of Virginia for the standard of decision." Haywood 
further says that they were living under this government in 
November, 1775. 

Some four years after this local, self, independent govern- 
ment had been entered into by the settlers of Watauga, John 
Sevier, in a memorial to the North Carolina legislature explain- 



The Pickets of Civilization. 21 

ing it, says: "Finding ourselves on the frontiei-s, and being 
appreliensive that, for want of a proper legislature, we might 
become a shelter for such as endeavor to defraud their credit- 
ors; considering also the necessity of recording deeds, wills, 
and doing other public business, we, by consent of the people, 
formed a court for the purposes above mentioned, taking, by 
desire of our constituents, the Virginia laws for our guide, so 
near as the situation of affairs would permit. This was intended 
for ourselves, and was done by consent of every individual." 

I rather suspect that some inquiry was made b}' the authori- 
ties of North Carolina, as to what kind of a government this was 
which had been set up within their jurisdiction, and which es- 
tablished courts that took the laws of Virginia as their guide. 

The "written association and articles for their conduct," en- 
tered into by the settlers on the Watauga, in May, 1772, formed 
the first "free and independent government" established and 
put into practical administration on this continent. 

The five commissioners or committeemen first appointed were 
John Sevier, James Kobertson, Charles Roberson, Zachariah 
Isbell and John Carter. This was an independent government, 
because they did not ask permission of any power on earth to 
enter into it, and they did not recognize any authority as supe- 
rior to that which they had voluntarily vested in the five com- 
missioners chosen by them. It was not a compact or league 
with any other power, but, as Sevier says, ' ' was intended for 
ourselves. " It was a free government, because it was volun- 
tarily entered into by the whole people, ' ' by consent of every 
individual." 

The settlers lived, prospered and were happy, under the gov- 
ernment of the five commissioners, for about six years. These 
commissioners settled all questions of debt, determined all rights 
of property, took the probate of wills and the acknowledgment 



22 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

of deeds, recorded the same, issued marriage licenses and hanged 
horse thieves, with much zest and great expedition — the ar- 
raignment, trial, conviction, condemnation and execution of a 
horse thief all occurring within an hour or so after he was ar- 
rested, inasmuch as they had no jail in which to imprison him 
overnight, and believed strongly in the idea that a man who was 
bad enough to be put in jail deserved to be hanged on the spot. 
In November, 1777, the assembly of North Carolina erected the 
District of Washington into Washington county, which included 
the whole of what is now the state of Tennessee. This was the 
first territorial division in the United States named in honor of 
George Washington. The Governor of North Carolina appointed 
justices of the peace and militia officers for this county, who, 
in February, 1778, met and took the oath of oflfice, and organ- 
ized the new county and its courts. Thereupon, the first ' ' free 
and independent government" formed and put into operation 
in America was no more, the jurisdiction and authority of the 
five commissioners having, by their own consent and that of the 
people, been superseded by the newly appointed authorities. 
The first written instrument, paper or record authoritatively 
made in the organization of what is today the judicial, politi- 
cal, civil and military existence of the state of Tennessee, is 
in the office of the county clerk at Jonesboro, and is in the 
words and figures following: 

FEBRUARY COURT 1778 

The oaths of the Justices of the peace melitia & for officers 
There Attestments, &c, 

Washington County, I A. B. do solemnly swear that as a 
Justice of the peace, and a Justice of the County Court of 
pleas, & Quarter Sessions in the County of Washington, in all 
articles in the Commission to me directed. I will do equal 
Right to the poor and to the Rich to the Best of my Judgment 
and according to the Law of the State. I will not privately or 
Openly by my-self or any other person, be of Council in any 



The Pickets of Civilization. 23 

Quarrel, or Suit, depending Before me, and I will hold the 
County Court, and Quarter Sessions of my County, as the 
Statue in that case shall and may direct. 

The fines and amerciaments that shall happen to be maid 
and the forfeitures that shall be incurred I will cause to be 
duly entered without Concealment. I will not wittingly or 
willingly take by myself or any Other Person, for me, any fee, 
Gift, Gratuity, or reward whatsoever for any matter or thing 
by me to be done, By virtue of my office except such fees as 
are or may be directed or Limited by statue, but well and truly 
I will do my office, of a Justice of the peace as well within the 
County Court of pleas, and Quarter Sessions as without. I 
will not delay person of common Right, By reason of any Let- 
ter, or order from any person or persons in authority to me 
directed, or per any other Cause whatever, and if any Letter 
or Order Come to me, contrary to Law I will proceed to In- 
force the Law, such letter or Order notwithstanding. I will 
not direct or cause to be directed any warrent by me to be 
maid to the parties. But will direct all such Warrants to the 
Sheriff or Constable of, the County or Other the Officers, Of 
the State or Other Indiferant person to do execution Thereof, 
and finally, in all things belonging to my office, during Con- 
tinuation therein will faithfully. Truly and Justly according to 
the best of my (Jud) skill and Judgment do equal and Impar- 
tial Justice to the Public and to Individuals, So help me God. 
Jas, Robertson, Valentine Sevier, John Carter, John Sevier, 
Jacob Womack, Robert Lucas, Andr, Greer, John Shelby Jr, 
George Russill, William Been, Zacr. Isbell, Jno McNabb, Tho, 
Houghton, William Clark, Jno McMaihen, Benjamin Gist, 
J. Chisholm, Joseph Wilson, William Cobb, James Stuart, 
Michl, Woods, Richd. White, Benjamin Wilson, Charles Rob- 
erson, William McNabb, Thos Price, Jesse Walton. 

This oath has a deep and significant meaning, in view of the 
practices which had characterized the administration of justice 
by British officials. It is worthy of note that this oath, so full 
and specific in detail, did not bind those who took it to allegiance 
either to the state or the colony of North Carolina, or to the 
United States of America. It did bind them, however, to be 
honest, just and faithful to the people; it did bind them to "do 
equal right to the poor and to the rich"; it did bind them not 
to make suggestions or give counsel in any quarrel or suit pend- 



24 DaoppED Stitches in Tennessee History. 

ing before them, not to delay any person in obtaining justice, 
not to allow outside influence to dictate or control their actions, 
not to accept any fee, gift, gratuity or reward whatsoever for 
any matter or thing by them to be done, except the compensa- 
tion allowed by law ; to keep an account of fines and to enter 
them without concealment; and, finally, to "do equal and im- 
partial justice to the public and to individuals." This oath was 
not merely administered to them in the modern, perfunctory 
way, as "You do solemnly swear," etc. They took it, repeated 
it after the oflScer, and signed it. 

The new order of things was an innovation on the former 
simple, direct and expeditious way of administering justice; but 
the five "committeemen" were also members of the new court, 
and methods were not very materially changed, as the records 
of the clerk's office at Jonesboro will show. They took juris- 
diction of all matters relating to the public good, and disposed 
of all questions summarily, as will be more fully and particu- 
larly shown in another chapter. 

Whenever a stranger appeared in the settlements, and gave 
his name as William Morningstar, Samuel Sunshine or Walter 
Rainbow, he would not be there long before he would be waited 
upon by a committee, one of whom would sa}^ to him : ' ' Look 
here, stranger, we have examined the book of Genesis from end 
to end since you came here, and we can't find the name of your 
ancestors. We think that you have got another name, and that 
you stole a horse somewhere and have run off. You must leave 
this settlement before night, or we'll hang j'ou!" Such frank 
treatment was invariably effective: its object was sure to heed 
the warning and to disappear befoi'e sunrise the next morning. 

About this time a vigorous and ambitious young man left 
the city of Philadelphia for the wilds of the southwest. His 
mind was stored with the rich intellectual treasures of old 



The Pickets of Civilization. 25 

Princeton, then under the presidency of the father of Aaron 
Burr. He walked, driving before him through Delaware and 
Maryland, over the Alleghanies and across Virginia, his ' ' flea- 
bitten grey," burdened to the utmost capacity with a huge sack 
of books. These classics were the nucleus of the library of an 
institution of learning yet unborn. After a fatiguing journey 
through a large portion of territory, with onlj^ obscure paths 
through gloomy forests for a highway, this devout and daunt- 
less adventurer halted among the settlers whom I have been 
describing. Soon thereafter, the first church — a Presbyterian 
— and the first institution of learning that were established 
west of the Alleghanies were founded. These were "Salem 
Church" and " Washington College, " both established in the 
year 1780, eight miles southwest of the seat of the present 
town of Jonesboro — the college being the first one in the United 
States that honored itself by assuming the name of the Father 
of his Country. It is stated as a fact that, long prior to the 
late war, twenty-two members of the Congress of the United 
States had received or completed their education at Washing- 
ton College, under this pioneer in letters and religious training, 
whose achievements constitute the jewels of our early literary 
and moral history. This man was Rev. Samuel Doak, D.D. 
Though he left a deep and indelible impress on the civilization 
and the literature of the Southwest, he sleeps today, amid the 
scenes of his successful earthly labors, with only a simple and 
fast crumbling memorial to mark the hallowed sepulchre of his 
silent dust. 

The settlers lived and their public affairs were conducted un- 
der the jurisdiction of the County Court of Pleas and Quarter 
Sessions for a period of about six years, in a quiet and orderly 
manner; but ever since that May day of 1772 when they organ- 
ized the first "free and independent government," their dream 



26 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

had been of a new, separate and independent commonwealth, 
and they began to be restless, dissatisfied and disaffected toward 
the government of North Carolina. Many causes seemed to 
conspire to increase their discontent. The first constitution of 
North Carolina had made provision for a future state within 
her limits, on the western side of the Alleghany mountains. 
The mother state had persistently refused, on the plea of pov- 
erty, to establish a Superior Court and appoint an attorney 
general or prosecuting oflScer for the inhabitants west of the 
mountains. In 1784, many claims for compensation for mili- 
tary services, supplies, etc., in the campaigns against the 
Indians, were presented to the state government from the settle- 
ments west of the Alleghanies. North Carolina was impover- 
ished; and, notwithstanding the fact that these claims were 
just, reasonable and honest, it was suggested, and perhaps be- 
lieved, ' ' that all pretences were laid hold of (by the settlers) 
to fabricate demands against the government, and that the in- 
dustry and property of those who resided on the east side of 
the mountains were becoming the funds appropriated to dis- 
charge the debts contracted by those on the west. " Thus it 
came about that, in May, 1784, North Carolina, in order to 
relieve herself of this burden, ceded to the United States her 
territory west of the Alleghanies, provided that Congress would 
accept it within two years. At a subsequent session, an act 
was passed retaining jurisdiction and sovereignty over the ter- 
ritor}^ until it should have been accepted by Congress. Im- 
mediately after passing the act of cession. North Carolina closed 
the land office in the ceded territory, and nullified all entries of 
land made after May 25, 1784. 

The passage of the cession act stopped the delivery of a 
quantity of goods which North Carolina was under promise to 
deliver to the Cherokee Indians, as compensation for their 



The Pickets of Civilization. 27 

claim to certain lands. The failure to deliver these goods nat- 
urally exasperated the Cherokees, and caused them to commit 
depredations, from which the western settlers were of course 
the sufferers. 

At this session, the North Carolina assembly, at Hillsboro, 
laid taxes, or assessed taxes and empowered Congress to col- 
lect them, and vested in Congress power to levy a duty on for- 
eign merchandise. 

The general opinion among the settlers west of the Allegha- 
nies was that the territory would not be accepted by Congress 
(and in this they were correct) ; and that, for a period of two 
years, the people in that territory, being under the protection 
neither of the government of the United States nor of the^state 
of North Carolina, would neither receive any support from 
abroad nor be able to command their own resources at home — 
for the North Carolina act had subjected them to the payment 
of taxes to the United States government. At the same time, 
there was no relaxation of Indian hostilities. Under these cir- 
cumstances, the great body of the people west of the Allegha- 
nies concluded that there was but one thing left for them to do, 
and that was to adopt a constitution and organize a state and a 
state government of their own. This they proceeded to do. 
"Was there anything else which these people could have done? 
Perhaps tiiere was; but did they not adopt just such a course 
as any people situated as they were would have taken? 

The}^ proceeded to take steps for the holding of a conven- 
tion. Delegates were elected from Washington, Sullivan and 
Greene counties, who met in convention at Jonesboro, August 
23, 1784. Messrs. Cocke, Outlaw, Carter, Campbell, Manifee, 
Martin, Roberson, Houston, Christian, Kennedy and Wilson 
were appointed a committee, ' ' to take under consideration the 
state of public affairs relative to the cession of the western 



28 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee Histop.y. 

country." This committee appointed Messrs. Cocke and Har- 
din a sub-committee to draft a report, which they did. This 
report was in the nature of an address to the people. The con- 
vention then adjourned, to meet again in Jonesboro, Septem- 
ber 16. It did not, however, assemble on that date. In Octo- 
ber, 1784, the North Carolina assembly repealed the act of 
cession. In the following November, the delegates again 
assembled at Jonesboro, but failed to adopt a constitution, and 
broke up in confusion, because of the repeal of the act of ces- 
sion. John Sevier, having received official information that 
the cession act had been repealed, courts established, an attor- 
ney general appointed and military officers commissioned, made 
a speech advising the people to go no further ; but Cocke and 
a majority of the people were unwilling to abandon their dream 
of a new state — and Sevier went with his people. 

December 14, 1784, another convention assembled at Jones- 
boro, and adopted a constitution, which was to be ratified or 
rejected by a convention called to meet at Greeneville, Novem- 
ber 14, 1785. In the meantime, a general assembly was 
elected, which met at Greeneville, early in 1785, and chose 
John Sevier for Governor, David Campbell judge of the Su- 
perior Court, and Joshua Gist and John Anderson assistant 
judges. Landon Carter was chosen Speaker of the Senate, and 
William Cage Speaker of the House. The same assembly, at 
the same session, afterward elected Landon Carter Secretary of 
State and William Cage State Treasurer. Joseph Hardin was 
then elected Speaker of the House, but I have not been able 
to ascertain from any source' jvhiO ,Tvas elected Speaker of the 
Senate m place of Carter. Stoakley Donaldson was made Sur- 
veyor General, and Daniel Kennedy and William Cocke were 
appointed Brigadiers General. The assembly elected all other 
officers, civil and military, being careful to choose those who 



The Pickets of Civilization. 29 

alreadj' held offices under the government of North Carolina — 
and so the ill-stari'ed "state of Franklin" began its career. 
The new state was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, as 
the correspondence of Sevier conclusively shows, and the name 
should therefore always be written "Franklin," and not 
"Frankland." 

The boundaries of the new state, as set forth in a paper in 
the handwriting of Col. Arthur Campbell of Virginia, were as 
follows : ' ' Beginning at a point on the top of the Alleghany 
or Appalachian mountains, so as a line drawn due north from 
thence will touch the bank of the New river, otherwise called 
Kenhawa, at the confluence of Little river, which is about one 
mile above Ingle's ferry; down the said river Kenhawa to the 
mouth of Rencovert or Greenbriar river; a direct line from 
thence to the nearest summit of the Laurel mountain, and 
along the highest part of the same to the point where it is in- 
tersected by the parallel of thirty-seven degrees north latitude; 
west along that latitude to a point where it is met by a merid- 
ian line that passes through the lower part of the rapids of 
Ohio ; south along the meridian to Elk river, a branch of the 
Tennessee; down said river to its mouth, and down the Ten- 
nessee to the most southwardly part or bend in said river; a 
direct line from thence to that branch of the Mobile called Don- 
bigbee [Tombigbee] ; down said river Donbigbee to its junction 
with the Coosawatee river to the mouth of that branch of it 
called the Higtower [Etowah] ; thence south to the top of the 
Appalachian mountains, or the highest land that divides the 
sources of the eastern from the western waters; northwardly 
along the middle of said heights and the top of the Appa- 
lachian mountains, to the beginning. " 

I am not prepared to say whether or not these people in- 
tended their new state to become part of the Union, as one of 



30 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

the provisions in their proposed form of government was that 
' ' the inhabitants within these limits agree with each other to 
form themselves into a free, sovereign and independent body 
politic or state, by the name of the commonwealth of Frank- 
lin. " I am inclined to the opinion that in the beginning they 
did not intend to join the Union of states, but that later they 
concluded that they would, as there was an effort made to have 
Congress recognize the new state. 

An examination of the boundary lines of the state of Frank- 
lin will show that it included fifteen counties of Virginia, six 
of West Virginia, one-third of Kentucky, one-half of Tennessee, 
two-thirds of Alabama and more than one-fourth of Georgia. 
Cast your eye over this magnificent area : see the blue mountains, 
the sun-browned cliffs, the beautiful rivers, the broad valleys 
with their golden wheat-fields and verdant meadows, with the 
hundreds of smaller streams and sparkling springs: it seems 
like one grand piece of natural embroidery, fashioned and put 
together by the fingers of infinity and spread out by the hand 
of the Almighty. Think of the iron, coal, marble, lead, cop- 
per, zinc and other minerals hidden within its soil — you might 
have put a Chinese wall around the people of the "state of 
Franklin, " and still they could have lived in absolute independ- 
ence of the outside world. There is more iron and coal in this 
territory than can be found in the same area elsewhere in the 
United States, and it is today yielding a vast revenue to its in- 
habitants. You can stand on some of its mountain-tops, and 
see the heavens darkened by day with the pillar of cloud, and 
made luminous by night with the pillar of fire, arising from 
furnace and forge in the valleys below, and hear the hammer 
of Thor beating the iron ribs of those majestic old mountains 
into the marvellous machines of modern invention and the util- 
ities of a grand civilization. 



The Pickets of Civilization. 31 

At the first session of the general assembly of the state of 
Franklin, held in March, 1785, fifteen acts or laws were passed. 
In the act levying a tax for the support of the government was 
the following section: 

Be it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the afore- 
said land tax, and the free polls, to be paid in the following 
manner: Good flax linen, ten hundred, at three shillings and 
six pence per yard. Nine hundred at three shillings: Eight hun- 
dred two shillings and nine pence: Seven hundred two shillings 
and six pence: Six hundred two shillings: tow linen one shilling 
and nine pence: linsey three shillings: and woolen and cotton 
linsey three shillings and six pence per yard: Good clean beaver 
skin six shillings: cased Otter skins six shillings: uncased ditto 
five shillings: rackoon and fox skins one shilling and three 
pence: woolen cloth at ten shillings per yard: bacon well cured 
at six pence per pound: good clean beeswax one shilling per 
pound: good clean talow six pence per pound: good distilled 
rye whiskey at two shillings and six pence per gallon: good 
peach or apple brandy at three shillings per gallon : good country 
made sugar at one shilling per pound: deer skins, the pattern 
six shillings: good neat and well managed tobacco fit to be 
prized that may pass inspection the hundred, fifteen shillings, 
and so on in proportion for a greater or less quantity. 

The last section of the act is in these words: "And all the 
salaries and allowances hereby made shall be paid by any treas- 
urer, sheriff or collector of public taxes to any person entitled 
to the same, to be paid in specific articles as collected, and at 
the rates allowed by the state for the same, or in current money 
of the state of Franklin." This provision furnished those who 
adhered to the North Carolina government much amusement. 
They asserted that the salai-ies of the Governor, judges and 
other oflBcers were to be paid in skins, absolutely ; and, to add 
to their amusement, had them payable in mink skins at that. 
From this provision the inhabitants of that section of the coun- 
try fell into the habit of referring to money as ' ' mink skins ; " 
and this term, as descriptive of money, thus spread all over 
the southwestern country. 



32 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

They estimated by law two dollars and fifty cents to be equal 
to fifteen shillings of the current money of Franklin. They 
allowed the Grovernor two hundred pounds annually ; the Attor- 
ney General twenty-five pounds for each coui't he attended; 
the Secretary of State twenty-five pounds and fees; the judge 
of the Superior Court one hundred and fifty pounds ; the assist- 
ant judges twenty-five pounds for each court they attended; 
the treasurer forty pound; and each member of the council six 
shillings per day for each day of actual service. 

A convention met in Grreeneville, in November, 1785, to 
adopt a constitution. Up to this time no disagreement had 
taken place — all were for Franklin ; but when the constitution 
which had been proposed was submitted, it was rejected; and, 
on motion of Col. William Cocke, the convention adopted the 
entire constitution of North Carolina. Thus began the trouble 
which ended in the overthrow of the state of Franklin. 

I can not now notice the various sessions held by the assem- 
bly of Franklin. It met for the last time in Greeneville, in 
September, 1787. ' ' During the years 1786 and 1787, a strange 
spectacle was presented — that of two empires being exercised 
at one and the same time, over one and the same territory and 
people." County courts were held in the same counties, under 
the Franklin and the North Carolina governments; "the same 
militia was called out by officers appointed by each government; 
laws were passed by both assemblies " ; taxes were laid by author- 
ity of both states — but the people said that they did not know 
which government had the right to receive their taxes, and 
therefore they adopted the easy solution of paying to neither. 
The Superior Courts of Franklin were held at Jonesboro; the 
courts under North Carolina were held at Davis's on Bufl'alo 
creek, ten miles east of Jonesboro, and at Col. Tipton's. There 
were now two strong parties, one under Tipton, adhering to 







HOUSE USED AS CAPITOL OF THE STATE OF FRANKLIN, 
In Greeuevllle, Tennessee. From a photograph taken in April, 1897 



The Pickets of Civilization. 33 

North Carolina, and the friends of Franklin following Sevier, 
each of whom endeavored by every possible means to strengthen 
his cause. ' ' Bver}'^ provocation on the one side was surpassed 
in the way of retaliation by a still greater provocation on the 
other. . . . The clerks of the county courts of Washington, 
Grreene and Sullivan, under Franklin, issued marriage licenses, 
and many persons were married by virtue of their authority." 

In 1786, while a court was in session at Jonesboro, under 
the Franklin government, Col. John Tipton entered the court 
house with a party of men, took the records away from the 
clerk and drove the justices out of the house. Not long after 
this, Sevier entered the house where the North Carolina court 
was sitting, turned the justices out bodily and carried off the 
records. "The like acts were repeated several times during 
the existence of the Franklin government. " James Sevier was 
clerk of Washington county under the Franklin government, as 
he had been under North Carolina. Tipton went to Sevier's 
house and took the old records away from him by force. 
Shortly afterward, the same records were recaptured, and 
James Sevier hid them in a cave. During these captures and 
removals many of the records were lost. Of the Franklin rec- 
ords all save one were either lost or destroyed. 

This single remaining record of the Franklin courts is not 
only interesting but amusing ; and, to be as drunk as it un- 
questionably is, contains some law and a great deal of early 
history. This record was evidently made late at night, by the 
light of a " tallow dip " or a bear-oil lamp, with a bottle of 
well-distilled apple or peach brandy near by. It is the only 
written record relative to the "lost state" and its courts that I 
have ever been able to find. It is like an old-time copy-book. 
On the outside are the following entries and memoranda — I 
give them literally: 



34 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

State of Franklin, — Washington County 
J James Sevier, State of Franklin James Sevier clerk of 
Washington County State of Franklin 
Franklin 
Franklin 
Franklin 

Inside, in the same handwriting, will be found the following: 

Good deeds are very commendable in youth. 

Good many men of good man^^ minds 

Good birds of Good man}^ kinds 

State of Court Adg'd, till court In course 

from a general insurrection of the times, to this date 7th, of 
May 1786, 

On the next page the record continues as follows: 

Something ambiguous will say he went to the Indians, no 
witnesses, no opportunity, they are not able to proove any- 
thing. The meaning is to be taken, the latter in contracts, 
deeds and wills, construed differantl}^ was there a ejectment, 
and he never tryed, nothing can be done until Injunction issue 
from the judge. The law says no party shall be tryed without 
witnesses Hobgobblins, and Ghosts. So many tryals 

Read and interpret this record in the flickering light of the 
history of the times. The court had been broken up and the 
justices driven out of the house — this, I suppose, is the "eject- 
ment " referred to. John Sevier was at this time on the frontier, 
fighting the Indians — hence, he "went to the Indians." There 
was at this time in the hands of the North Carolina sheriff a 
bench warrant for the arrest of Sevier; if he was arrested, the 
charges against him could not be proven without witnesses; 
these would be hard to procure against John Sevier, and yet no 
one could be fairly "tryed without witnesses." So this clerk, 
alone at midnight, with no company except the flask whose 
odor seems still perceptible in the pages of his record, reasoned 
and wrote — until the "Hobgobblins and Ghosts" got after him! 

In January or February of 1788, John Sevier's property was 
seized under a fieri facias issued by North Carolina. Sevier 



The Pickets of Civilization. 35 

and Tipton, with their respective followers, met and fought a 
slight battle two miles south of the present site of Johnson City, 
in which the former was repulsed. In the following October, 
Sevier was arrested and carried to North Carolina for trial. 
Soon afterward, the government of Franklin collapsed, and 
North Carolina passed an act of "pardon and oblivion," and 
reassumed her government of these people. 

The state of Franklin, in 1787-8, was composed of the three 
original counties of Washington, Sullivan and Greene, together 
with four new counties — Sevier, which covered the same terri- 
ritory it now covers and a part of what is now Blount; Caswell, 
which occupied the same section of country now included in 
Jefferson; Spencer, which covered Hawkins; and Wayne, cov- 
ering Johnson and Carter. 

As late as February, 1789, the record in Jonesboro shows 
the following entries: 

James Allison and James Sevier came into open court and 
prayed to be admitted to take the benefit of the act of pardon 
and oblivion by taking the oath provided by law, which was 
deferred till tomorrow for want of the acts of the General As- 
sembly. 

On the next day the following entry was made: 

James Sevier, James Allison and Francis Baker, persons 
icho had withdrmmi their allegiance [from North Carolina] 
came into open court, and availed themselves of the act of 
pardon and oblivion by taking the oaths prescribed by law. 

At the February term, 1788, of the court, the following 
order was made and entered of record: 

Ordered by the Court that Johnathan Pugh Esqr, Sheriff of 
Washington County, Take into custody the County court docket 
of said county, supposed to be in the possession of John Sevier 
Esqr, And the same records bring from him or any other per- 
son or persons, in whose possession they are now, or hereafter 
shall be, and the same return to the Court or some succeeding 
court for said county. 



36 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

At the May term, 1788, this order was made: 

Ordered by the court that the Sheriff of this County demand 
the public records of this County from John Sevier, former 
clerk of the court. 

The records referred to were lost, or remained in the cave 
where they were hidden. 

All opposition to North Carolina authority was now virtually 
withdrawn, but the people west of the Alleghanies worked 
quietly for a separation and a new state. 

North Carolina passed a second cession act, under the pro- 
visions of which, February 25, 1790, Samuel Johnston and 
Benjamin Hawkins, Senators in Congress from North Carolina, 
deeded the territory to the United States, and the sovereignty 
of North Carolina over it instantly expired. It has been aptly 
said that ' ' the separation was not like that of a disconsolate 
mother parting from a beloved daughter, but rather like that 
when Abraham said to Lot, 'Separate thyself, I pray thee, 
from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to 
the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go 
to the left.'" 

President Washington appointed William Blount Governor 
of the territory, August 7, 1790. On the 10th day of the fol- 
lowing October, Governor Blount organized the territorial gov- 
ernment, at the house of Mr. Cobb, in Sullivan county, on the 
north side of Watauga river, since known as the Massengale 
farm, above and opposite where Austin Springs are. The pop- 
ulation of the territory in July, 1791, was 36,0-13, including 
3,417 slaves. The whole population of the Cumberland settle- 
ment at that time was 7, 042. 

November 5, 1791, the second printing press introduced in 
the ' ' New World west of the Alleghanies " was set up, at Bog- 
ersville, by Mr. George Boulstone. 



The Pickets of Civilization. 37 

The people who made it possible for Tennessee to have a 
centennial were a wonderful people. Within a period of about 
fifteen years, they were engaged in three revolutions; partici- 
pated in organizing and lived under five different governments; 
established and administered the first free and independent 
government in America; founded the first church and the first 
college in the southwest; put in operation the second newspa- 
per in the "New World west of the Alleghanies ; " met and 
fought the British in half a dozen battles, from King's Moun- 
tain to the gates of Charleston, gaining a victory in every bat- 
tle; held in check, beat back and finally expelled from the 
country four of the most powerful tribes of Indian warriors in 
America; and left Tennesseans their fame as a heritage, and a 
commonwealth of which it is their privilege to be proud. 

These are the people among whom Andrew Jackson settled 
and began life, and from whose character, example and achieve- 
ments he must have received some little degree of inspiration. 

Passing from the scene of their toil and trials, their strug- 
gles and dangers, from war with the savage and war with the 
civilized, let us devote a little time to further examination into 
their character, as revealed in the judicial records made and 
left by them. 



CHAPTER III. 

A U NIQ UE COURT. 

THERE may be mistake, error, fraud and injustice in court 
proceedings and judicial records; but when such records 
were made more than a century ago, and contain some part 
of the history of the people who made them, and have stood 
all these years unchallenged and uncontradicted, such records 
may be safely accepted as truth. In writing of a people more 
than a century after the period in which they lived — a people 
who did not have a daily newspaper in their midst to chronicle 
their deeds and views, and who were in a country between which 
and other parts of the world there was but little if any commu- 
nication — it is easy indeed for a facile writer to ascribe to them 
characters which they did not have, views which they did not 
entertain, and accomplishments with which they were not en- 
titled to be credited, without taking much risk of being con- 
tradicted. 

The early history of the colonies and "new settlements" in 
North America is and has been for many years a fascinating 
field for writers; and it must be confessed that too often a little 
incident or tradition has been so magnified by a too vivid im- 
agination that it has appeared in print as a very readable but 
colossal falsehood. It is also lamentable that the plain, un- 
varnished truth of history has, in many instances, been so 
colored and distorted in the effort to make it romantic, that 
many persons who could have contributed much valuable infor- 
mation in the way of simple facts have not done so, because of 
a lack of that faculty of imagination which some writers pos- 
sess to such a degree that they can inform you beforehand that 



A Unique Court. 39 

they are going to tell you a lie — in part, at least — and yet will 
tell it in such beautiful language and in so smooth and plausible 
a way as to make you believe the whole story. 

The Tennessee pioneers did not have any one with them in 
their earliest days to write an account of their experiences, or 
to portray their lives and characters; nor did they have any 
newspapers to make a record of their doings in the business 
concerns and affairs of life; and if they wrote any letters on 
these matters, they have not been preserved. The}' had, how- 
ever, at Jonesboro, a "County Court of Pleas and Quarter 
Sessions," in which they made and left a record showing much 
that they did, and from which, even at this late day, we can 
get a very clear insight into their views as to the duties and 
responsibilities of citizenship, the power and duty of courts, as 
well as their notions concerning the business and social rela- 
tions of life, and indeed on all matters which, in their judg- 
ment, pertained in any way to the peace, good fame and welfare 
of the community and of individuals. I shall, therefore, quote 
literally much from these old original records kept in Washing- 
ton county — the quotations being taken from the records of that 
county only, for the reason that it was the first county estab- 
lished and organized in what is now Tennessee, and included 
for quite a time all of the early settlements in what is commonly 
known as "upper East Tennessee." The same character of 
entries will no doubt be found in the old records kept in Sul- 
livan, Greene, DavidsQn, Hawkins, Sumner, Tennessee and 
Knox counties, in all of which Jackson practised as an attornej^ 
or presided as a judge. The proceedings in the courts of the 
counties named, especially those that will be set out, will be of 
interest not alone to Tennesseans, but also to the descendants, 
scattered throughout the southwest and west, of the men who 
made these records. 



40 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

The first session of the court was held at the log-cabin of 
Charles Roberson, near Jonesboro, February 23, 1778. It was 
composed of the justices of the peace whose names have been 
given as subscribers to the oath set out in a preceding chapter. 
After the court had been organized by electing oflScers, its first 
act was to fine John Sevier, Jr. , for some minor matter which 
was gravely denominated "a contempt to the court." John 
Sevier, Sr. , had just been elected clerk of the court, and was 
undoubtedly the most influential man in the country, on account 
of his meritorious character — but this did not shield the son. 
The fine was not remitted ; and there is no evidence that John 
Sevier the clerk endeavored in any way to interpose. 

On the second day, ' ' William Cocke by his counsel Waight- 
sell Avery moved to be admitted to the ofl3ce of Clerk of this 
County of Washington which motion was rejected by the Court 
knowing that John Sevier was entitled to the oflSce. " This is 
absolutely the whole of the record. It was the first contested 
election case that occurred west of the Alleghany mountains, 
and was between two citizens who became very distinguished — 
Cocke having been elected one of the first two Senators from 
Tennessee, while Sevier, after holding all the other oflBces within 
the gift of the people of that county, was elected a representa- 
tive in Congress and six times chosen Governor of Tennessee. 
The worthy justices, " knowing," as they said, that Sevier had 
been elected, without hearing Mr. Cocke, his counsel or any evi- 
dence whatsoever, swore in Sevier as clerk. 

These entries follow: 

Ordered that David Hinkley be fined 30 L. for insulting the 
Court. 

Ordered that Hump Gibson be fined 10 L. for swearing in 
Court. 

Then, after passing upon a motion or two — 



A Unique Court. 41 

Ordered that Ephriam Dunlap Atty. be fined 5 Dollars for 
iiisultiug the Court, especially Richard White. 

It is not likely that any member of this court had ever held 
any office prior to his appointment as a justice of the peace 
therein, and it is not probable that many of them had ever been 
in a court of any kind before they organized that which they 
constituted ; and yet the record shows that, from the first day 
of the first term, and on through all of the many stormy ses- 
sions which they held thereafter, they guarded and defended 
jealously the dignity of their court, and enforced obedience to 
its mandates. It was a heinous oflfence indeed, and visited 
with condign punishment, to "insult the Court." 

The aggregate fines imposed on Sam Tate, at one term, 
amounted to forty thousand pounds;* and while fines were im- 
posed on some one at every term, there are but two entries to 
be found on the record, from the February term, 1778, to and 
including the November term, 1790, showing that such fines 
were remitted. 

At the May term, 1778, a somewhat embarrassing question 
presented itself. Some one of three persons, it would appear, 
had taken from Samuel Sherrill, f without his consent, his bay 
gelding, and left the country. They could not, therefore, get 
any one of the suspected persons into court or in custody, and 
they must have been in doubt as to which of the three did in 
fact ride the horse ofl^; so they said: 

On motion it appears that Joshua Williams Johnathan Helms 
and a certain James Lindley did Feloniously Steal a certain 
Bay gelding horse from Saml Sherill Senr. Ordered that if 
the said Saml Sherill can find any property of the said Joshua 
Williams Johnathan Helms & said Lindley that he take same 
into his possession. 

♦Continental currency. 

tThis was the father of Catherine Sherrill, the " Bonnie Kate " of John Sevier. 



42 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

So far as the record shows, they never caught an}'^ of the de- 
fendants, but Sherrill must have got close on them at one time ; 
for, at the August term, the court < ' ordered that a saddle and 
coat the property of Joshua Williams be sold and the money 
arising therefrom be left in the possession of Saml Sherill. " 
They could not capture and punish the thieves, but they could 
and did authorize Sherrill to seize the property of the rascals 
wherever he could find it. 

The first case of high treason tried by the court was at the 
August term, 1778. This is the record: 

State '\ 

V. > High Treason. 

Moses Crawford. ) 

It is the Opinion of the Court that the defendant be im- 
prisoned during the present war with Great Britain, and the 
Sheriff take the whole of his estate into custody which must be 
valued by a jury at the next Court and that the one half of the 
said estate be kept by the said Sheriff for the use of the State 
and the other half remitted to the family of defendant. 

I have not examined the statute under which this county 
court tried, convicted and imprisoned defendants charged with 
treason, and confiscated their property, to see whether or not 
they had a right to remit one half of confiscated property to the 
family of the defendant, for the reason that I do not wish to 
know how the fact was. I am satisified with the record as they 
made it, and leave others to look up the statute. 

Having disposed of Crawford — and his property too — they 
took up the case of Isaac Buller, whom, as he had neither 
family nor property, and the evidence, if any was heard (on 
motion), was a little vague, they simply put in prison until an 
opportunity should offer to make a better use of him. This is 
the summary manner in which they disposed of Isaac: 

On motion of Ephriam Dunlap that Isaac Buller Should Be 
sent to the Contl. Army, and there to Serve three Years or 



A Unique Court, 43 

During the War On Hearing the facts it is Ordered by the Court 
That the said Isaac Buller Be Immediately Committed to Gaol 
and there Safely kept until the said Isaac can be delivered unto 
A Continent' 1 Officer to be Conveyed to Head Quarters. 

At the February term, 1779, the court made and entered of 
record an order prescribing the charges that tavern-keepers 
might exact from guests as follows : 

Diet 08s. 0: Lodging 1 night good bed and clean sheets Is. 
6d: Rum Wine or Brandy 3L.4s.O: Toddy pr Quart, & sprts 
of Rum therein 8s. 0. and so in proportion. Corn or Oats per 
Gal 4s. : Stabledge with hay or fodder 24 hrs 4s. : Pastur- 
age 24 hrs. 2s : Cyder pr qrt 4s. : Bear pr qrt 2s. : Whisky 
pr Gallon 2L.0.0: 

After they had put the above on record, they entered upon 
the trial of their second case of a very high crime, as the follow- 
ing entry shows: 

State ") 
vs. y For Treason Feby 1779 

George Leivis. ) 

On hearing the facts and considering the testimony of the 
Witnesses It is the Opinion of the Court That the defendant be 
sent to the District Gaol It Apg. To the Court that the said 
Leivis is a spie or An Officer from Florida out of the English 
Army. 

At this term, besides transacting routine business, they tried 
ten persons on charges of treason, convicted five of them, 
ordered their property confiscated, and sent them to the district 
jail at Salisbury — and the entire record of the term is contained 
on twelve pages! 

If this court could have been transferred to the more intelli- 
gent states of Massachusetts or New Hampshire, and had held 
a few terms therein, "Shays's rebellion" would have been 
crushed out in a week, or all the "gaols" would have been 
filled with the rebellious and the public treasury with the pro- 
ceeds of confiscated property. These patriots were in earnest. 



44 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

At the May term, 1779, two entries appear as having been 
made on the same day, which show two sides of this remark- 
able court. The first entry is as follows: 

State ") 

V. V For stealing a Ploughshear, hogs and some 

Pat Murphey ) other Things 

The Court are of Opinion that the defendant pay 33L. 6s. 
8d. to Zachr. Isbell for his Hog & 2GL. 13s. 4 to Thos. Evans 
for his Hog and ten pounds fine And also receive Twenty Lashes 
on his bare Back well laid on by the Sherifli or Deputy. 

The other entry was: 

Ordered that John Murphey be fined the sum of Twenty 
pounds for 111 Treatment to his reputed father Pat Murphey. 

The court said that, in its opinion, Pat Murphey was a bad 
man — and he was, as other cases in the records against him 
show; and they had him whipped, fined him and, under the 
operation of the court's adjustable jurisdiction, rendered judg- 
ment against him in a criminal case for the value of two hogs; 
but these "backwoods " justices of the peace said to the reputed 
son of this old and hardened criminal that "HI Treatment" of 
a father, by even a reputed son, would not be tolerated in that 
community. 

At this May term, and following the entries just given, is 
another, which, in a few words and (so far as the record shows) 
without any previous notice, deprives a citizen of his liberty 
and of further opportunity to do harm to ' ' the common cause 
of liberty, " on the mere motion of the state's attorney. Here 
it is: 

On motion of E. Dunlap State Attorney it is ordered that 
John Holly for his 111 practices in Harboring and Abetting dis- 
orderly persons who are prejudicial and Inimical to the Com- 
mon Cause of Liberty and Frequently Disturbing our public 
Tranquility in Genl. be Imprisoned for the Term & Time of 
One Year. 



A Unique Court. 45 

Up to the date of the entry of this order imprisoning John 
Holly "for the term and time of one year," on the mere mo- 
tion of the state's attorney, the record shows a little more for- 
mality in convictions for treason and the confiscation of prop- 
erty, as it will appear from the recitals that the court, "on 
considering the facts," or "on hearing the witnesses [or evi- 
dence]," "are of opinion," etc. 

It is very doubtful whether there can be found (outside of 
Tennessee) another such judicial record as this one, made and 
entered on a mere motion, without the accused having previous 
notice or (so far as the record shows) being present in person 
or by attorney, and without any evidence being heard to sup- 
port the charge, embodied in the motion, that Holly was an 
enemy to the public tranquillity generally and guilty of other 
specified offences. It is safe to assume, however, that the court 
"knew " he was guilty, as they "knew " that John Sevier was 
entitled to the oflSce of clerk when they dismissed Cocke's con- 
test without hearing him at all. 

At this term, the court "nominated and appointed John 
Sevier, Jesse Walton and Zachr. Isbell to take into possession 
such property as should be confiscated," and they gave "bond 
as such commissioners in the sum of Five Hundred and Fifty 
Thousand pounds." 

And they had the "tax-dodger" with them also, as early as 
August, 1779 — the good citizen who always wants his full share 
of attention and protection by the law, without paying his just 
proportion of the taxes to support the government ; but he could 
not escape this court's resourceful remedies for all exigencies. 
Here is given the disposition of the case : 

Ordered that the Sheriff Collect from Wm. More four fold: 
his Taxable property being apraised by the Best Information 
that John Woods, Jacob Brown & Johnathan Tipton Assessors 
could get — to the sum of Eight thousand pounds. 



46 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History, 

Even the smart and rascally tax-dodger could not evade the 
law, with a court like that one to take hold of him. 

At the May term, 1780, it was " Ord. that a fine of One 
Hundred pounds be imposed on John Chisholm Esqr for being 
Guilty of Striking and Beating Abram Denton in the Court 
Yard also Disturbing the peace and Decorum of the Court and 
that the Clerk issue an execution for the same." This fine is 
here set out for the reason that John Chisholm was one of the 
first justices appointed for the county — he was at the time a 
member of the court that imposed this fine — and, as the records 
show, was wealthy and prominent in public affairs, being trusted 
with various appointments by the court; and yet he did not 
escape the hand of correction so often laid on offenders by the 
court in one or another way. The offence for which he was 
fined was committed, not in the presence of the court, but out 
in the court-yard. I very much doubt if an instance prior to 
this one can be found, where the limits within which it has 
been held that a contempt of court could be committed have 
been so extended as to include the court-yard. 

At the November term, 1780, the court formulated and en- 
tered the following very remarkable order: 

The Court appointed John Sevier, William Cobb, Thomas 
Houghton and Andrew Greer Commissioners for the County to 
be Judges of the Different kinds of paper Emissions in Circu- 
lation in this County or may be hereafter, in order to prevent 
frauds and Impositions that might be committed on said County, 
and for the purpose of Detecting and Suppressing Coins of this 
kind, who shall be the Judges & Viewers of all such Monies. 

The record recites that these commissioners and judges "took 
the oath and entered into bond for the performance of sd Trust. " 

At the time these four gentlemen were appointed as a high 
commission to be "judges and viewers" of the currency of the 
realm, and "detectors and suppressers" of spurious or counter- 



A Unique Court. 47 

feit ' ' coins " and ' ' paper emissions in circulation, " all kinds of 
"such monies" seem to have gotten into "the new world west 
of the Alleghanies, " for, at the same term of the court making 
the order regulating the charges of tavern-keepers, referred to 
above, two rates or schedules were prescribed, one in ' ' paper 
emissions," the other in "coins." The order of the county 
court creating this commission and investing it with power to 
"view" and "judge" of the genuineness of the circulating 
medium, and to detect and suppress such of it as should be 
adjudged fraudulent, does not point out the way, lay down any 
rules or provide any method for the guidance and direction of 
the commission in the exercise of the powers given or the dis- 
charge of the duties imposed. It says simply what they shall 
do, or rather what they have been appointed to do, and then 
leaves them to do it. That they found out an effective way to 
exercise their powers there is not a doubt. They did not need 
to be given "mandatory" power. "Counterfeiters" had been 
"dealt with," before this domestic monetary commission was 
created, by some of the same men who constituted the com- 
mission. 

One of the most delicate and difficult duties that devolved 
upon this commission, under the terms of the order creating it — 
particularly the words, ' ' in order to prevent frauds and impo- 
sitions that might be committed," etc. — was in cases where a 
question was raised as to the genuineness of the money offered 
in payment by a citizen known to be upright and free from any 
suspicion of handling spurious money, to another equally honest, 
who refused it because he was doubtful as to its being ' ' good 
money." The "judges and viewers" were called in to take 
action, and had to decide in effect whether or not the money 
offered was a "legal tender." Their decision was accepted; 
and henceforth that particular money circulated, if so ordered, 



48 Dropped Stitches is Tennessee History. 

without question, and performed all the functions of money, 
whether it was in fact genuine or spurious : if the decision was 
adverse, that money was thenceforth worthless. 

As an incident of the power and authority vested in these 
"judges and viewers," arose the question occasionally of guilt 
or innocence, when a charge of counterfeiting or of wilfully 
and knowingly passing spurious money was preferred. The 
person so charged was tried before the high currency commis- 
sion, and its finding or judgment not only settled the question 
of the guilt or innocence of the accused, but made the par- 
ticular currency involved either "sound money" or counterfeit 
in that entire country. John Sevier, according to tradition, 
was chairman of the commission; if his name was written on 
the " paper emission, " it passed current thereafter, and when 
offered in payment was a "legal tender." 

The court also ' ' Ordered that Capt. John Patterson deliver 
unto John Halley a Certain Rifle Gun being the property of 
said John Halley. " 

Some very serious difference or grave misunderstanding be- 
tween the court and Mr. James Gibson must have occurred at 
the November term, 1780, or at some time previous, if the 
record left in reference thereto be correct — and who would 
doubt it? Whether or not the court intended to suppress free- 
dom of speech generally, it must be admitted that its action 
toward Gibson would certainly tend toward suppressing the 
public expi-ession of a want of confidence in the integrity of 
that court, and putting a stop to the practice of ' ' throwing out 
speeches" against it. The record relates that — 

James Gibson being brought before the Court, for through- 
ing Out Speeches Against the Court, to-wit, — Saying that the 
Court was purjured and would not do Justice, and Other Glare- 
ing Insults. The Court On Considering the matter are of 
Opinion that the said James Gibson is guilty of a flagrant 



A Unique Court. 49 

Breach of The peace & for the same and the glareing and Dare- 
ing insults offered to the Court do order that the said James 
Gribson be fined tlie sum of fifteen thousand pounds & that he 
be kept in custody until same is secured. 

Gibson, as the record shows, secured the fine. It is not to 
be supposed that any of the "speeches" which he had been 
"throwing out" were made in the court room or in hearing of 
the court, because the record states that he was "brought be- 
fore the court." When and where he assailed this august body 
does not appear. This did not matter to them : their jurisdic- 
tion was as wide as the universe, and their power to punish 
him unquestionable, as they believed. The fine imposed on 
John Chisholm, a member of the court, for striking and beat- 
ing Abram Denton out in the court-yard; the fine imposed on 
John Murphey, for "ill treatment" of his reputed father, no 
doubt at home; the order directing Capt. Patterson to deliver 
"unto John Halley" a gun decided by the court to be "the 
propert}' of said John Halley"; the method employed to pun- 
ish Gibson; the creation of a commission to determine in effect 
what money should or should not be a legal tender, as well as 
the other matters, hereafter to be related, to which they gave 
attention, show that this remarkable court had no idea of hav- 
ing its powers limited and defined or its jurisdiction circum- 
scribed. 

Only two orders of the May term, 1781, will be noticed. 
The first is, ' ' Ord, that Saml Tate be fined the sum of ten 
thousand pounds* for a contempt of Court and that the Clerk 
issue F. Facious vs his estate for the same." On a subsequent 
day of the term, the clerk acknowledges the receipt of the fine 
imposed on Tate. The other order is: "Ordered that Jesse 
Greer be fined the sum of One Hundred pounds for a Contempt 

* It must constantly be kept in mind that these apparently enormous sums were 
in Contineutal currency. 

4 



50 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

offered to the Court &c in refusing to deliver unto the Widow 
Dyckes her property as Directed By Order of the Court. " 
Under their rules of practice, they did not require ' ' the Widow 
Dyckes" to employ a lawyer and bring an action of replevin 
against Greer ; they had heard the case at a former term ' ' on 
motion, " without stating on the record who made the motion, 
and had directed Greer to deliver the property in question to 
the widow Dyckes, which he had refused to do. They did not 
require her to employ counsel to sue Greer and recover a judg- 
ment for the value of the property detained from her, issue 
execution, levy on and sell the property to satisfy the judg- 
ment; they made use of a much more direct method, by hold- 
ing Mr. Greer liable for contempt, and resorting to their favor- 
ite mode of administering justice without delay — to-wit, ' ' on 
motion " and ' ' ordered. " 

At the May term, 1782, nothing of any considerable conse- 
quence was done. The court ' ' nominated and appointed John 
Sevier William Cocke and Valentine Sevier Commissioners of 
Confiscation for the year 1782, whereupon sd. Comr's entered 
into bond with security for the sum of Fifteen Thousand 
pounds, Specie." 

The court, at this term, gave to a citizen who had evidently 
been "hiding out" permission to return to the settlements, as 
the following order shows: 

On motion that Joshua Baulding should be admitted to come 
in and Remain henceforth peaceably in this County. On pro- 
viso, that he comply with the Laws provided for persons being 
inimical to the State and have Rendered Service that will ex- 
piate any Crime that he has been Guilty of inimical to this 
State or the United States. The Court on considering the same 
Grant the sd Leave. 

This order, and others similar to it, which are not given place 
in this chapter, serve to establish beyond question the intense 



A Unique Court. 51 

loyalty of the members of the court to ' ■ the common cause of 
liberty " (as the struggle of the Americans then going on against 
Great Britain was always designated), and also the vigilance 
with which they must have scrutinized the conduct of each in- 
dividual. There can be no doubt that Baulding had fled and 
was hiding in the hills or mountains, and that he knew it would 
not be safe to return or "come in" without the permission of 
the court. 

The August term, 1782, was one of the most memorable in 
the history of the court. It was a ' ' Court of Oyer and Term- 
iner & Genl. Gaol Delivery," as well as for other county pur- 
poses. At this term it was presided over for the first time by 
a judge — "the Honl. Spruce McCay Esqr Present and Presid- 
ing." He had the court opened by proclamation, and with all 
the formality and solemnity characterizing the opening of the 
English courts. 

On the first day of the term, John Vann was found guilty, 
by a jury, of horse-stealing, the punishment for which at that 
time was death. On the same da}' the record contains an entry 
to the eflfect that ' ' the Jury who passed upon the Tryal of John 
Vann beg Leave to Recommend him to the Court for Mercy " ; 
but no mercy was shown him by ' ' the Honl. Spruce McCay 
Esqr, " as the record discloses further along. During the week, 
two more unfortunates — Isaac Chote and William White — were 
found guilty of horse-stealing; and, on the last day of the term 
(August 20), Judge McCay disposes of all three of these crim- 
inals in one order, as follows : ' * Ord that John Vann Isaac 
Chote & Wm White now Under Sentence of Death be executed 
on the tenth day of September next. " This is the whole of the 
entry. 

The judge was mistaken in saying that the three persons 
named in the order were "under sentence of death." No such 



52 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

sentence is to be found of record — all that appears is an entry 
of the style of the case, as " State vs " etc., in each case, and 
the entry opposite the case, that ' ' the jury sworn to pass upon 
the Trj'al do find the defendant guilty in manner and form as 
charged in the indictment"; but there is no formal sentence of 
death entered of record in either of the three cases. It is not 
probable that a parallel proceeding can be found in judicial his- 
tory. Judge McCay utterly ignored the unanimous action of 
the jury who recommended John Vann to the mercy of the 
court. Can a case be found where a judge, in the United States, 
ever refused mere}" to a criminal who was commended to him 
for mere}' by the jury that found him guilty ? Can another 
case be found where a judge caused three persons to be " exe- 
cuted " by one order, consisting of five lines and seventeen 
words, exclusive of the names of the criminals ? 

Judge McCay omits entirely to direct the method of execut- 
ing the three criminals — he does not say whether they shall be 
hanged, shot, burned or drowned — but they were executed, 
either with rope, rifle or tomahawk, according to the good 
taste of the sheriflf or the wishes of the defendants. 

Tradition in that country gave Judge McCay the character 
of a heartless tyrant. He was said, while judge, to have al- 
ways been on one side or the other of suits tried before him; 
and he ncA^er failed to let it be known which side he was on. 
He frequently indulged in lecturing, not to say abusing, juries 
publicly, when they returned verdicts contrar}' to his wishes 
and instructions. But "the Honl. Spruce McCay Esqr" found 
his match in the juries. They could not be driven or intimi- 
dated into giving verdicts contrary to their convictions; and 
whenever they differed with the judge — and they always knew 
his views — in a case of weight or serious results, they would 
deliberately disperse, go to their homes, and not return any 



A Unique Court. 53 

more during that term of court. In a, case styled ' ' State vs 
Taylor," the record shows that the jury was sworn and the de- 
fendant put on "Tryal. " Nothing more appears except the 
following significant entry: "State vs. Taylor. The jury hav- 
ing failed to come back into court, it is therefore a mistrial." 

Judge McCay may only have been, as has been said of him, 
' ' a man of strong character, determined and fearless in dis- 
charging his duty" — ^but so were the juries in that county, as 
the records show. 

At the May term, 1783, there was made an entrj^, which, 
when taken in connection with one which will be given imme- 
diately after it, will show how wisely these pioneers judged of 
men, and how necessar}', sometimes, it was for them to take 
measures which at the time appeared harsh and cruel. The 
first entry is as follows : 

On petition of Lewis & Elias Pybourn that they who is at 
this time Lj'ing out and keep themselves Secreted from Justice 
that the Court would permit them to Return to their Respective 
Houses and places of abode and Them the said Lewis & Elias 
Pybourn to give bond and sufficient Security for their Good 
behavior &c. The Court on consideration of the matter do 
Grant and Give Leave unto said Elias & Lewis Pybourn to Re- 
turn accordingl}^ on their giving bond & approved security to 
Capt. John Newman for their Good behavior &c. 

A final entry, made in the "Superior Court of Law and 
Equity " at Jonesboro, seven years later — at the August term, 
1790 — in the case of the "State of North Carolina Against 
Elias Pybourn for Horse Stealing," justifies the members of 
the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in having required 
Elias Pybourn to give security for his future good behavior. 
The full entry is as follows: 

The defendant being called to the Bar and asked if he had 
anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him 
Saith Nothiny;. It is therefore Ordered that the said Elias 



54 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

Pybourii be confined in the publick Pillorj^ one Hour. That he 
have both his ears nailed to the Pillory and severed from his 
Head ; That he receive at the publick Whipping post thirty nine 
lashes well laid On; and be branded on the Kight cheek with 
the letter H, and on his left cheek with the letter T. and that 
the Sheriff of Washington County put this sentence in execu- 
tion between the hours of Twelve and Two this day. 

Horrible, awful punishment! Marked for life; a description 
of his crime burned on and into his face with a hot iron — 
"Horse Thief"; both of his ears'cut off close up to his head. 
What a hideous spectacle ! Was the mark placed upon Cain by 
the Almight}^ such that when people met him they said, ' ' Let 
him alone; keep your hands off him; he has been punished 
sufficiently already"? Would not people say the same of poor, 
debased, degraded Pybourn? 

Was the punishment inflicted on Pybourn barbarous? Yes; 
but the court had warned him of the wrath to come, and had 
first made him flee to the forest for safety— better had he gone 
to the Indians — and had then given him permission to return 
to his home, on condition that he would reform and behave 
himself. The only entry found in the whole of the records to 
soften in the slightest degree the harsh and (it may be said) in- 
human punishment meted out to Pybourn, is one that suggests 
the horror that came over one Joseph Culton, when he discov- 
ered, after he had emerged from a single combat with Charles 
Young, that the latter had bitten off one of his ears. Culton 
of course regretted the loss of his ear, and was still more an- 
noyed to be thus disfigured for life ; but these were the least of 
his troubles — somebody thereafter might think that he had 
been ' ' cropped " for crime. What was he to do ? He appeared 
at the November term, 1788, of the Court of Pleas and Quarter 
Sessions, whose jurisdiction knew no limits as to venue, time 
when or subject matter, and the following entry was made for 
his relief and protection from suspicion: 



A Unique Court. 55 

Joseph Culton comes into Court and Proved by Oath of Alex- 
ander Mofflt that he lost a part of his left Ear in a fight with a 
certain Charles Young and prays the same to be entered of rec- 
ord. Ordered therefore that the same be Admitted Accord- 
ingly. 

It is not probable that any one ever examined this entry, and 
demanded to see the page whereon the lost ear had been for- 
mally entered of record; but it is certain that Joseph Culton 
carried with him constantly a certified copy of the entry which 
attested that he had been maimed in honorable combat, and not 
as a punishment for violation of law. 

This wonderful county court, before and since which there 

has been none like it, adapted or adjusted its jurisdictional 

powers and methods to all matters, questions and conditions 

that could be brought in any wa}' to its notice. When a stranger 

came into the communit}', it did not content itself with letting 

him alone, no matter how quietly and orderly he might conduct 

himself; it had him interviewed, as the entry here quoted will 

prove : 

The Court Order that Wm Clar}' a trancient person give se- 
curity for his behavior, and return to his family within five 
months, as the said Clary is without any pass or recommenda- 
tion and confesses he left his familj' and have taken up with 
another woman. 

The most that the average detective could have gotten out of 
Clarj' would have been that he came from — where he started, 
and was going — where he went; but the court found out more 
than this about him, and they must have got it from his own 
mouth, as the order, after reciting facts that they could have 
gotten from him only, concludes by setting forth a very dam- 
aging confession which he had made, and which, all will agree, 
justified the court in requiring security of him for his behavior 
while he might remain in their midst, and peremptorih' order- 
ing him to return to his family within a stated time. 



56 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

By the time of the meeting of the August term, 1784, the 
court had pretty well purged the country of traitors, horse 
thieves, " trancients, " etc. At this term the court seems to 
have turned its attention to the ugly habits of some of the very 
respectable; for, on the first day of the term, as the record 
shows, fines were imposed and paid as follows: " Eml. Carter 
three prophane oaths 8s. 1 Od. pd : Pharoh Cobb four prophane 
oaths 10s. 8d. pd: Buckner Nantz One prophane swearing Oath 
prays mercy Granted: Valentine Sevier for prophanely swear- 
ing 4 Oaths fined 10s. 8d. pd: Mark Mitchell for swearing One 
prophane Oath fined 2s. 8d. Patrick Murphey One Oath, 
Michael Tylloy Two Oaths." This treatment seems to have 
been effective; for, no fines being recorded after the first day, 
it is reasonably sure that no "prophane oaths" were indulged 
in, during the remainder of the term — at least in hearing of 
the court. 

As a result of the many battles with the Indians, and the 
numerous Indian massacres which had occurred, numbers of 
children were left without fathers or mothers. They had no 
orphan asylum, but the records of the court show that homes 
were provided for these wards, nevertheless, by the Watauga 
and King's Mountain heroes. They had no county asylum for 
the poor; but the county court, whose jurisdiction could be ex- 
tended to meet all emergencies, "ordered" some citizen by 
name to ' ' take and keep " the person named therein for the 
time specified. These orders contained no recital that they 
were made by the consent of anyone — they emanated from the 
inherent power and duty of the court, as it believed, to provide 
for the poor. 

The entries and orders selected from these old records are 
given, in order that those who wish to know something of the 
views, characters and abilities of the very earliest pioneers of 



A Unique Court. 57 

Teunessee, may read for themselves the views and opinions 
which they placed in solemn form on court records, in reference 
to the various matters, questions and conditions on which, as 
they thought, the vicissitudes of the times made it necessary 
for them to take action. I wish to give, at this place, two 
more orders of the court, before closing this chapter. At the 
November term, 1784, the following was entered on the record: 

The Court recommend that there be a Court House built in 
the following manner, to wit: 24 feet square diamond corners 
and hewed down after the same is built up, 9 feet high between 
the two floors, and the body of the house 4 feet high above the 
upper floor, each floor to be neatl}' laid with plank. The roof 
to be of joint shingles neatly hung on with pegs, a Justices 
bench, A lawyers and a Clerks bar, also a Sheriffs box to sit in. 

At the November term, 1785, the following was entered: 

The Court Ordered that Col'o Charles Roberson be allowed 
fifty pounds Current money for the building of the Court House 
in the Town of Jones Borough. 

As this was the first court house erected in what is now Ten- 
nessee, and the one in which Andrew Jackson, John McNairy, 
Archibald Roane, William Cocke, David Campbell and others 
began their professional careers ; and in and about which John 
Sevier, though not a lawj^er, rendered so much and such in- 
valuable service in laying the foundations of our state, and its 
civil as well as military institutions, I have had.it reproduced, 
and present a picture of it in this little volume. From what 
has been said, and from the records which have been quoted, 
the imagination can picture the scenes and proceedings occur- 
ring in this "temple of justice" — for such it was, although 
made of logs ' • hewed down " and covering ' ' hung on with pegs. " 

These earl}" records challenge comparison, in spirit, form and 
substance, with any others made during the same period in any 
community, country' or state in the United States. No patriotic, 
intelligent people can read them without being filled with ad- 



58 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History 

miration and inspired witli respect and reverence for the men 
who made them. They said, on the first day of the first term 
of the court, the court must be respected; to the cruel son, you 
shall not ill-treat your father, though he be a criminal; to the 
vagrant without a "pass or recommendation," you must give 
security for your behavior or leave the community; to the man 
who had abandoned his wife, you must return to your family; 
to the strong and influential, you must render unto the widow 
her own, or we will force you to do so by fines that will make 
you glad to obey; to the tax-dodger, you shall pay your pro- 
portion of the taxes ; to a member of the court, no matter what 
your position is, if you cruelly beat your neighbor, we will take 
from you a large part of your wealth and turn it into the public 
treasury; to the man v/ho was "throwing out speeches" calcu- 
lated to destroy the influence of the court for good, 3"ou must 
not malign the court, no matter when nor where — if you do, 
we will lay the heavy hand of summary punishment upon you ; 
to such as were stirring up sedition and opposition to ' ' the 
common cause of liberty," you shall not remain openly and 
peaceably in the community without giving security for your 
good conduct; to thieves, we will fine, whip, brand and hang 
you; to tories, we will confiscate your property and imprison 
you ; to the British, we will meet and fight you, on every field 
from the mountains to the sea; to the Indians, we will fight 
you too, from the mountains to the lakes and the gulf. And 
they did it all. Who could have done more? They were he- 
roes, one and all, but history, it seems, has long since given 
them over to oblivion. 

Although, in 1788, they had passed through a "general in- 
surrection of the times," as chronicled by the clerk of the court 
under the state of Franklin, and had no doubt come out some- 
what demoralized, still the habit of doing what they believed 



A Unique Court. 59 

to be right was so strongly imbedded iii their natures that, at 
a term of court (February, 1788) held after its reorganization 
following the Franklin collapse, they imposed upon and col- 
lected from one of the most prominent citizens of the county a 
fine for swearing in the court-yard. The record recites that 
' ' Leroy Taylor came into Court and pays into the Office the 
fine prescribed by Acts of Assembly for one profane Oath which 
was accepted of. Ordered therefore that he be discharged. 
21s." Leroy Taylor was elected from Washington county as a 
delegate to the constitutional convention of 1796, and was kept 
in the General Assembly almost continuously for eight or ten 
sessions after Tennessee was admitted into the Union; he was 
the author and introducer of the first resolution offered in the 
General Assembly (in 1801), raising a committee to prepare a 
design for the great seal of the state of Tennessee — but, with 
all his prominence, he could not with impunity make use of 
even "one profane oath" in hearing of the county court of 
Washington county. 

The achievements of these old pioneers will run, however, 
"like the covenants of warranty with the land" they loved so 
well. A few glimmering memories, a few dim traditions, some 
scattered fragments of stories — these are all that is left (out- 
side the old court records alluded to) of many of these men, 
every one of whom was a giant in morals and a colossus in in- 
tellect, as compared with many modern pigmies whose little 
deeds have been magnified into great achievements. 

If the structures of state, county and municipal institutions 
in Tennessee, and the social fabric as well, had been kept in 
harmony with the pure, simple, steadfast and enduring founda- 
tions laid by John Sevier and his contemporaries, what models 
we would have today for the world to imitate. Are we wiser 
or better than they? Eead and study these old records: then 
answer. 



CHAPTER IV. 

A TRAGIC EPISODE. 

TENNESSEE does not need the prolific genius of the ro- 
manticist to embellish and invest with thrilling interest the 
narrative of her origin and development, of the hardships 
and endurance of her pioneers, of the heroism and triumphs 
of her builders and defenders; but, looking backward, with 
more than a century between us and the T^evolutionary War, we 
would be unmanly not to admit that at times we were a little 
too vindictive and remorseless in pursuing those whose rever- 
ence and love for the "mother country" were stronger than 
their desire for a change and greater than their faith in the 
young dream of American liberty. 

Whilst separation and independence were imposing theories, 
so fascinating to the wild and restless spirits who had founded 
and were building up a vast empire in the western world, advo- 
cating their bold measures with absorbing zeal and desperate 
earnestness, there was a minority, many of whom were staid 
and sturdy, honest in purpose and courageous in conviction, 
who regarded the movement as unwarranted, and fraught with 
immediate peril and ultimate ruin. Despite persuasion, re- 
monstrance, threats, social ostracism and what seemed to them 
persecution, they held allegiance to the Crown as a paramount 
duty, and regarded the war that must inevitably follow, in its 
destruction of the flower of the new country, as a twin horror 
of the Cretan Minotaur that fed on the Athenian youth. 

At the close of the Revolutionary War, these tories ("loy- 
alists," as they called themselves) were universally execrated; 



A Tragic Episode. 61 

and the most popular victor, with many of the patriots, was he 
who could suggest the most humiliating punishment for these 
unfortunates: the}' were put in stocks, chained to the public 
pillories, cast into prison, and beggared by the confiscation of 
their property, " without benefit of clergy." These and other 
punishments inflicted on the tories were justified during the 
times as retaliatory for outrages committed upon the patriots 
by the British and some of their American allies. Then, too, 
some extenuation must be found for the victorious revolution- 
ists in the riot of frenzy and demoralization that always fol- 
lows war.* 

In the perspective of this group of terrible scenes, heart- 
aches, desolation of homes and disruption of families that the 
"common cause of liberty" might not perish, stands out a 
tragedy which, while it is of itself a melancholy picture of 
misfortune, suft'ering, despair and absolute want, is yet lumi- 
nous with courageous manhood and the transcendent glory and 
conquering heroism of a pure and noble womanhood. 

Novr Term 1780. Ordered that the Commissioners advertise 
and sell the property of James Crawford & Thomas Barker, 
they the said James Crawford and Thomas Barker being found 
and taken in Arms Against the State. 

May Term 1782. John Sevier a Commissioner of Confis- 
cated property for the year 1781, made return that he sold Two 
Slaves Confiscated of the estate of Thomas Barker at the price 
of thirty four Hundred pounds, and that he have the money 
ready to Return. 

Aug. Term 1782. The Court Order that Mrs. Ann Barker 
wife of Thomas Barker who stands charged with joining the 
British & was taken at Kings Mountain a prisoner, by the 
Americans & after that his estate was Confiscated by the County 
Court of Washington — On her application in behalf of her 
Husband for Tryal by Jury the same is Accordingly Glranted. 

* If the motives that prompted many of the tories to adhere to the British crown 
during the Revolution were measured by the more modern political standards of 
selfishness or self-interest, there be many now who could not make mouths at their 
memories. 



62 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

These musty old records kept at Jonesboro, stitched togethei 
like an old-fashioned copy-book, unbound, ' ' unhonored and 
unsung," have slumbered for more than a century. They con- 
tain history so sacred, however, that not a mouse or a moth 
has dared to touch them; the paper is still good and the ink 
and penmanship clear and legible; and, if properly cared for, 
they will be as enduring almost as the principles of justice and 
integrity that guided the men who made them. 

Connected with, growing out of and clustering around some 
entries and orders in these almost forgotten archives of a by- 
gone century, there are stories and traditions which, if they 
could be unravelled, touched up and then put together again 
by a skilful and painstaking historian, would thrill with awe, 
admiration and wonder many of the present generation, and 
arouse in them sentiments and sj^mpathies far more ennobling 
and exalting than those aroused by the ephemeral literature of 
the day. One only of these stories and traditions have I been 
able to trace and treasure up, for the purpose of giving it to 
the public at such time as I should think proper. 

I have grouped the three entries given above, for the pur- 
pose of publishing (for the first time, so far as I know) one of 
the saddest and most pathetic of the many sad and pathetic 
stories of the times. The mere reading of these three short 
entries suggests not only to Tennesseans, but to Americans, a 
whole history: the Revolutionary War, King's Mountain, trea- 
son, confiscation, imprisonment, wife and children reduced to 
want, the faithfulness of the wife and her final appeal in person 
to the court for a trial of her husband by jury. But these en- 
tries have their own peculiar and painful histor}^ which will be 
related briefly, as obtained from sources which would make 
doubt, on my part at least, undutif ul and discrediting to my 
ancestors. 



A Tragic Episode. 63 

Thomas Barker came to the Watauga countrj^ immediately pre- 
ceding or just after the formal Declaration of Independence was 
made by the colonies. He came from either southeastern Vir- 
ginia or Maryland. He was a large, handsome man, over the 
average in intelligence. He brought with him a fair library for 
the times, the best of household and kitchen furniture, some 
slaves and plenty of live stock and farming utensils. His pur- 
pose was to acquire an immense estate in lands, which he was 
preparing to do when the Revolution broke out in earnest. He 
was a "tory" from the start, and did not attempt to conceal 
his views, which were, in brief, that the colonies were too weak 
to contend successfully with Great Britain ; that the latter, with 
her wealth and facilities, would ultimately crush out all op])0- 
sition, and the colonies would be reduced in resources and yet 
subjected to burdens more oppressive than those complained of ; 
or, if they were successful in gaining their independence, they 
would not be able to agree among themselves upon such form 
of government as would permanently unite them into one peo- 
ple, offensive and defensive ; that no matter what form of gov- 
ernment they might adopt for uniting all of the colonies into 
one whole, they would soon become disaffected and dissolve 
their relations to each other, thereby becoming a scattered, weak 
and helpless people for more powerful nations to prey upon and 
subjugate; and that it was better to yield obedience to and en- 
joy the protection of the "mother country." 

These views had been expressed by Barker to the court which 
afterward confiscated his property, as early as the February 
term, 1779, at which term he was arraigned on a charge of 
' ' treason. " Barker also stated to the court that it was not his 
desire to take sides in the struggle ; that he preferred, if let 
alone, to remain with them and his wife and children, but that, 
if forced to participate on one side or the other, he should take 



64 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

up arms for the "mother country." He was a brave man and 
an honest, and the court knew it; and the}' disposed of the 
case — which was styled " State vs Thomas Barker for Treason" 
— by the following order: "On hearing the facts It is the 
Opinion of the Court that he the Deft, be discharged." As the 
war progressed, however, the feeling of hate and bitterness in 
the community against " tories" became more and more intense, 
and Barker finall}^ left his home and joined the British army. 
He was captured at King's Mountain by some of the very men 
who constituted the court to which he had so boldly expressed 
his views more than a year before. He had been made a cap- 
tain, and, according to tradition, commanded a company of 
tories at the battle. He was not only a man of personal cour- 
age, but he was a proud, "high-strung" fellow, about twenty- 
eight or thirty years old; and, at the moment of the surrender 
of the remnant of Ferguson's army, he was denouncing in bitter 
terms the cowardice of his own and other troops. 

After the battle of King's Mountain, the xlmericans from 
Virginia and from Washington and Sullivan counties. North 
Carolina, started home with the prisoners, arms, etc., captured 
in the battle. On the way, about October 12 to 14, a court 
martial was held at a point called Bickerstaff's Old Field, in 
Rutherford county. North Carolina, and some thirty or more 
of the prisoners were sentenced to be hanged — some for deser- 
tion from the American army, others for horse-stealing, and 
still others for crimes and outrages perpetrated on the people 
who were supporting the "common cause of liberty." None 
of those so sentenced were regular British soldiers; they were 
North Carolina tories, some of them fi'om Washington and 
Sullivan counties. Among j;he latter were Thomas Barker and 
James Crawford, who were saved from the ignominious death 
to which they had been sentenced, and which was actually in- 



A Tragic Episode. 65 

flicted on nine or ten of the prisoners, by the intervention of 
their former friends and neighbors who were then present as 
soldiers in the commands of Sevier and Shelby. Barker and 
Crawford knew the men who had captured them, and knew 
that as a class they were both brave and just. Barker's bear- 
ing, during and after the court martial proceedings, was cool 
and defiant; he said, with much deliberation, that he was not 
guilty of a single one of the offences charged against him, and 
that there were more than a hundred men there who knew him 
and knew his statement to be true; and he added that, if they 
stood by and permitted him to be hanged for crimes he was in- 
capable of committing, then he was no judge of men. 

This speech infuriated some of the men from Washington 
and Sullivan counties and Virginia, and they made some demon- 
strations of instant violence upon the speaker, who stood with 
a scowl upon his face, and, holding up his open hands, said 
quietly : "I am unarmed ; you can kill me, but you can't scare 
me!" His speech, however, had quite a different effect upon 
those who knew him at home, those who knew his wife, and 
especially those who knew him to be a brave, truthful, honest 
man. Col. Charles Koberson, John McNab, Charles Allison 
and John Allison, * who had participated in the battle of King's 
Mountain, interposed with earnestness and emphasis against 
hanging Barker and Crawford, and they were supported in 
their opposition by Col. John Sevier and Col. Isaac Shelby, 
which of course settled it. Barker was brought back to Jones- 
boro and put in prison, where he had been kept for a little 
more than a year and ten months, when his noble wife appeared 
in court in person, and procured the order granting him a trial 
by jury, given above. 

This August term, 1782, was one long talked of and remem- 

* Grandfather of the writer. 
5 



66 Dropped Stitches in TenxVessee History. 

bered for more reasons than one. It was the term at which a 
judge — "the Honl. Spruce McCay Esqr. " — presided for the 
first time; the term at which three horse-thieves had been tried 
and sentenced to be executed; the term at which tories had 
been tried and sentenced to imprisonment, and their property 
confiscated ; the term at which some offenders were sentenced to 
be, and were, whipped at the public whipping-post. * Few, very 
few women would have gone in person before such a court, to 
demand that a tory be granted a trial by jury; but Mrs. An- 
toinette Barker, wife of Thomas Barker, walked into court, 
with two (possibly three) small children with her. Their ap- 
pearance was sufficient to excite sympathy: their faces were 
pale and haggard, and their clothing, although neat, was 
patched and worn. Mrs. Barker was a woman of fine appear- 
ance, with a beautiful face and a symmetrical figure, and more 
than a match for the court in intelligence; but, depicted in 
every line of her countenance, were the traces of mental anguish 
and physical suffering. She did not, however, weep, go into 
hysterics, faint, fall down and be carried out, but she stood up 
in the presence of that court, in all the magnificence of supe- 
rior womanhood, and, with the vehement eloquence of despair, 
pleaded the cause of her husband. All that she said will never 
be known; some things that she said were handed down from 
generation to generation. She ' ' used the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence on the court"; she denied that her husband was a 
traitor; she reminded the justices that he had stated his views 
to them openly and boldly, that he had never taken the oath of 
allegiance to the continental cause, and that he had told them 
plainly that, if forced to a choice, he would go into the British 
army; that he was her husband, and a kind and good one, and 
the father of her little, innocent, helpless children; that they 

* See chapter iii. 



A Tragic ErisoDE. 67 

had taken all of his property and left his family paupers; that 
he was then in prison, and had been for nearly two years, in 
consequence of which his health was altogether gone; that she 
and her little ones were without a protector, and that her neigh- 
bors and former friends had almost wholly forsaken her. Her 
face, no doubt, was flushed with the hot blood of agony welling 
up from her heart; possibly her voice grew weak and broke 
under the stress of her emotion — but this noble woman won 
her cause. Her application for the trial of her husband by a 
jury was granted, and the court immediately adjourned. The 
record shows it, and the adjourning order is signed by Andrew 
Greer, James Stewart, Charles Roberson, Charles Allison, 
Thomas Houghton and John McNab, four of whom at least had 
participated in the capture of Thomas Barker at King's Mountain, 
and had afterward been present at his trial by court martial. 

This heroine, in the wilds of the western world, had un- 
doubtedly quoted from the Declaration of Independence the 
charge against Great- Britain ' ' for depriving us in many cases 
of the benefits of trial by jury," and had also probably sug- 
gested to the mind of the court, for the first time, the question 
as to whether treason could be committed against a government 
by a person who had never acknowledged allegiance to it. 

The order granting Barker a trial by jury, unlike other orders 
of this court, is not clear. It bears on its face evidence of 
confusion in the court; and this, taken in connection with the 
fact that the court adjourned immediately after granting the 
order, readers it certain that this wonderful woman was, for 
the time being, in absolute control of this marvellous court. 

Did she try to secure the services of a lawyer and fail? I 
do not know; but I do know that these old records fail to dis- 
close the presence of an attorney as counsel for a single one of 
the various defendants who were tried by the court on a charge 



68 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History, 

of treason. There were at this time, according to tiie old 
records, about six attorneys practising regularly in the court, 
and the records recite their presence as counsel in other cases 
at that and other courts. Were these attorneys too patriotic 
to appear in these cases, or too timid from a personal or busi- 
ness standpoint? 

The court afterward relented, and Barker was released on 
his own recognizance, and never tried. Ruined in fortune, 
ostracized by friends, broken in spirit and in health, he could 
not endure his changed condition in life. He died soon after 
his release from prison, and the brave, faithful, noble but 
broken-hearted wife speedily followed her husband to the grave, 
leaving two or three children, the oldest a boy of some five or 
six years. They were taken by a gentleman and his wife who 
had no children, but a brother of either Barker or his wife 
soon came and removed them from scenes and faces that it was 
well for them to forget forever. 

The little graveyard in which this brave man and his noble 
wife were buried was remembered by old people in Washington 
and Sullivan counties as late as thirty years ago. When I first 
saw and knew this graveyard as the one in which they were 
buried, it looked much like a thicket fenced in, but the old 
crooked rail fence around it was fast rotting down. There 
were some large trees in it, the largest a wild cherry. Later, 
the fence was entirely gone, as well as most of the trees, and 
cattle were lying on the graves in the shade of the trees. Still 
later, the trees were all gone save the lone wild cherry, and 
there was not a stone or a mound left: the owner of the land 
was plowing over the dust of the dead. 

The world's heroes are not those only who talk face to face 
with death at the cannon's mouth, and wet battle-fields Avith 
their crimson life-tide. 



CHAPTER V. 

EAMLY TENNESSEE LEGISLATION. 

THE first legislative act passed in what is now the state 
of Tennessee was an "Ordinance of the Governor and 
Judges of the Territory of the United States of America 
South of the River Ohio, for circumscribing the counties of 
Greene and Hawkins, and laying out two new counties, Jeffer- 
son and Knox." This act was passed June 11, 1792, and de- 
scribes with minute particularity that part of the boundaries of 
the old counties affected by it, as well as those of the new 
counties created. The act appoints Charles McClung and 
James Maberry to run and mark certain parts of the lines, and 
Alexander Outlaw and Joseph Hamilton to run and mark the 
other parts. It also directs that the Courts of Pleas and 
Quarter Sessions for Knox county be held at Knoxville, for the 
ensuing year, on the third Mondays of January, April, July 
and October, and for Jefferson county at the house of Jeremiah 
Matthews, on the fourth Mondays of the same months, -'for 
the administration of justice." 

The second ordinance passed by the same authority is one 
the example of which it were well we had followed, but, alas! 
we have not. This ordinance, in a preamble, recites that, 
"whereas, doubts have arisen whether the several Courts of 
Pleas and Quarter Sessions in this Territoiy have by the laws 
of North Carolina authoritj" to levy taxes for building or re- 
pairing court houses, prisons and stocks in the said counties 
respectively, pay jurors and defray contingent expenses; ajid 
whereas, it is necessary that these doubts shall no longer exist"; 
and then proceeds to authorize and empower the courts to levy 



70 Dropped STiTcnE-? in Tennessee History. 

and collect a tax for the purposes named — not to issue bonds, 
and entail their payment, with interest, upon future generations. 

The ordinance provides that the tax so levied and collected 
by the several counties shall, not exceed, in unj one year, more 
than fifty cents on each poll, nor more than seventeen cents on 
each hundred acres of land. 

Wise legislators wei'e William Blount, David Campbell and 
Joseph Anderson, who constituted the legislative authority. 
Their example was followed, after Tennessee was admitted into 
the Union, by the general assemblies elected by the people, for 
a very long period, so that, whenever money was appropriated 
or a countj^ authorized to make anj^ expenditures, the same act 
required the county authorities to levy a tax, collect it and 
pay up, instead of piling up debt. Those who wish to know 
how it was that Tennessee made such rapid strides in the pro- 
duction of statesmen, the building up of a name, the develop- 
ment of her natural resources, and advancement in education 
and the very highest order of civilization, for the first half cen- 
tury of her existence, have but to study the legislative history 
of that period. 

' ' The Governor, Legislative Council and House of Represent- 
atives of the Territor}' of the United States of America South 
of the river Ohio" passed an act, September 30, 1794, entitled 
"An Act for the relief of such persons as have been disabled 
by wounds, or rendered incapable of procuring for themselves 
and families subsistence in the military service of the territory, 
and providing for the widows and orphans of such as have died. " 

The act provides that persons of the description mentioned 
in the caption must apply to and establish their right to an al- 
lowance, under the act, before the county court; that the county 
court shall make an allowance ' ' adequate to their relief for one 
3'ear — which allowance shall be continued for the succeeding 



Early Tennessee Legislation. 71 

year and so long as such court shall certify such person to con- 
tinue under the description aforesaid"; that when such certifi- 
cate was "countersigned by the Governor and President of the 
Council and Speaker of the House of Representatives, together 
with their order or certificate for the said allowance, it shall be 
a sufficient voucher to any sheriff, collector or treasurer paying 
the same, in the settlement of their public accounts." 

On August 26, 1776, Congress promised, by a resolution, to 
the officers and soldiers of the army and navy who might be 
disabled in the service, a pension, to continue during the con- 
tinuance of their disabilities. 

On June 7, 1785, Congress recommended that the several 
states should make provision for the army, navy and militia 
pensioners resident with them, to be reimbursed by Congress. 

On September 29, 1789, an act was passed providing that 
the military pensions which had been granted and paid by the 
states, respectively, in pursuance with the foregoing acts to 
invalids who were wounded and disabled during the late war, 
should be paid by the United States from the fourth day of 
March, 1789, for the space of one j^ear. 

The act of March 26, 1790, appropriated the sum of $96,- 
979.72 for paying pensions which may become due to the in- 
valids. 

The act of April 30, 1790, provides for one-half pay pen- 
sions to soldiers of the regular army disabled while in line of 
duty; and the act of July 16, 1790, provides that the military 
pensions which have been granted and paid by the states re- 
spectively shall be continued and paid by the United States 
from the fourth day of March, 1790, for the space of one year. 

There were several other similar acts providing for the yearly 
payment of pensions, but the first general act which made a 
regular provision for the pensioning of commissioned and non- 



72 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

commissioned officers, musicians, soldiers, marines and seamen, 
disabled in the actual service of the United States, and in line 
of duty, by known wounds received during the Revolutionary 
war, was the act approved on March 10, 1806, which provided 
by its terms that it should remain in force for and during the 
space of six years from the passage thereof, and no longer ; but 
it was subsequently revived and kept in force by the acts of 
April 25, 1812, May 15, 1820, February 4, 1822, and May 24, 
1828. 

And so it appears, that the ' ' Governor, Legislative Council 
and House of Representatives of the Territory of the United 
States of America, south of the river Ohio," passed an act 
unconditionally and permanently pensioning disabled soldiers 
and militiamen, and the icidows and orphans of such as had 
died from wounds, twelve years before such an act was passed 
bj' the Congress of the United States. 

It would not be in keeping with the main purpose of this 
modest effort to catch up and put together in their proper 
places some dropped stitches in Tennessee history, to go into 
an examination in detail of the various acts passed by the legis- 
lative authority of the territorial government and by the earliest 
sessions of the general assembly of the state. Believing, how- 
ever, that it may be profitable, at this time, to bring into public 
view some of the great doctrines, principles and policies that 
seem to have guided our early legislators, as gathered from 
what they did, they will be briefly mentioned, with date, sub- 
stance, objects, etc. 

The first of the policies indicated was that counties and mu- 
nicipalities should not conti'act interest-bearing debts and post- 
pone their payment for a long period of years. This policy 
was fixed and not deviated from ; for in every act which au- 
thorized a county or municipalit}' to expend money for the 



Early Tennessee Legislation. 73 

erection of public buildings of any kind, or for any other pur- 
pose, sucli county or municipality was also requii'ed to levy a 
tax to pay for it; and, to prevent extravagance or the erection 
of a building or buildings for public uses not required, the act 
fixed a limit in excess of which tax should not be levied or col- 
lected. Was this because they were wiser than we are? No. 
They read the constitution, took an oath to support it, and 
found that it said, as it does now, that ' ' the general assembly 
shall have power to authorize the several counties and incorpo- 
rated towns in this state to impose taxes for county and corpo- 
ration purposes respectively"; and they had not then become 
wise enough to construe the true meaning out of this provision, 
and make it mean that the general assembly shall have power 
to authorize counties and incorporated towns to borrow money 
and issue promises and obligations to pay it ten, twenty or 
thirt}' years after date, with interest payable semi-annually. 
If some holder of such promises to pay, or of bonds issued by 
a county or an incorporated town or city, should be called upon 
to point out that provision in our constitution which gives power 
to the general assembly to authorize a county or municipality 
to enter into and deliver such obligations, what section, clause, 
line or word could be found to make such bonds legal, valid 
and binding? 

They had the "fee question," the "school question," public 
roads, the regulation of private corporations, the "gold" or 
"specie contract" question, all to deal with; and they dealt 
with all of them prior and up to the year 1801, taking hold of 
and settling these complicated, vexatious problems in a cour- 
ageous and statesmanlike way. 

The fee act, passed in April, 1796, not only regulated the 
compensation of public officers, but fixed the fees of attorneys 
in civil suits, from ' ' twelve dollars and fifty cents in any suit 



74 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History 

in equity," down to "one dollar and twenty-five cents in any 
appeal from the judgment of a justice of the peace to the 
count}' courts." The fees allowed attorneys were specified in 
each character of the various suits, the greatest sum allowed 
being twelve dollars and fifty cents. 

Two acts, however, ought to have special prominence given to 
them in Tennessee at this particular time (March, 1897). One of 
these, bearing on the subject of " gold " or " specie contracts," 
with the cunning methods used to ultimately accomplish the 
repeal of the most important section in it, is here given in full: 

An act respecting- dollars and cents, and contracts, and the man- 
ner of keeping- accounts, so far as respects the currency in which 
contracts shall be made and accounts kept. Passed January 

5th, 1799. 

Sec. 1. £e it enacted by tlie General Assembly of the State 
of Tennessee^ That all judgments and verdicts in courts of 
record, and by justices of peace out of court, shall be rendered 
in dollars and cents, or such parts thereof as the nature of the 
case may require; and all executions thereon and all bills of 
costs shall issue accordinglj-. 

Sec. 2. Be it enacted. That from and after the first day of 
January, One thousand eight hundred, all accounts shall be 
kept, and contracts made where money is stipulated for, in 
dollars and cents, or such parts thereof as the nature of the 
case ma}' require ; and all accounts kept or contracts entered 
into, where money is stipulated for, other than is by this act 
directed, shall be void and not recoverable by law. 

By an act passed October 23, 1799, the second section of 
the foregoing act was suspended ' ' until the next stated Gen- 
eral Assembly." At the next general assembly, November 10, 
1801, this second section was again suspended " until the next 
stated General Assembly." At the next succeeding general 
assembly, October 25, 1803, the following act was passed: 

Chap. 60. An Act to repeal jiart [italics mine] of the second section 
of an Act entitled An Act respecting- dollars and cents, con- 
tracts and the manner of keeping accounts, passed January the 
fifth, 1799. 

1 . Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of 
Tennessee, That so much of the second section of the above 



Early Tennessee Legislation. 75 

recited Act that requires all accounts kept or contracts entered 
into, where money is stipulated for, other than are by said Act 
directed, shall be void and not recoverable b}' law, is hereby 
repealed, an}' law to the contrary notwithstanding, except as 
respects accounts kept by merchants, 2^hysick(ns and innkee2)ers 
[italics mine] . 

2. Jie it enacted, That this Act shall be in force after the 
first day of September next. 

October 3, 1805, another act, of one section only, was 
passed, as follows: 

An Act to repeal the second section of an Act respecting^ dollars 
and cents, accounts, contracts, &c. 

Be it enacted, That the second section of the before recited 
Act, passed on the fifth day of January, in the Year of Our 
Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, be and 
the same is hereby repealed, anything to the contrary notwith- 
standing. 

The original act passed in January, 1799, was intended to 
remedy two evils. The fix'st, but not the chief one, was to put 
a stop to the keeping of accounts, the taking of notes or the 
making of any kind of contract where payment in money was 
stipulated for, in pounds, shillings and pence, and to compel 
the use in all such obligations of the terms dollars and cents; 
and to more effectually enforce this, the act prohibited courts 
from rendering judgments, making out bills of costs or issuing 
executions for anything but dollars and cents. The second 
evil the act, in its original form and provisions, had foi'ever 
cut up by the roots was the ' ' specie " account or contract — that 
is to say, the shrewd keepers of accounts and money-lenders 
would embody in the account, note or other obligation, where 
money was stipulated for, the term ' ' specie. " If it was an 
account, it would be opened something like this: "Spruce 
McCay, in account with Ephraim Dunlap — specie"; or if a 
note, due-bill or other obligation, the term "specie" usually 



76 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

followed the ' ' promise to pay " or the statement of the amount 
contracted to be paid or acknowledged to be due. 

To the close student of the methods which are usually em- 
ployed by the artful and designing, these several acts are 
amusing — first suspending a particular section, then suspend- 
ing it again, then repealing part of it, and finally accomplish- 
ing the repeal of the whole section. Now, note. The first 
repealing act excepted from its pro\isions ' ' merchants, physi- 
cians and inn-keepers"; that is, the repealing act was so art- 
fully worded as to leave the original act in full force against 
the three classes mentioned — about the only people who trans- 
acted any business of consequence and who required payment 
in money at that time. These could not make any contract, 
or keep an account, for paj^ment in "specie" — thej- must ac- 
cept payment in the currency of the times. The system of 
barter, at this period, between the agricultural class and the 
blacksmith, cooper, wagonmaker, shoemaker, etc., was such 
that accounts between them were so kept as to be payable in 
the products of each, and not in money — no money ever being 
passed between them or expected. Thus, this first repealing 
act, stripped of the film that shrouded it, simply left the origi- 
nal act in full force against everybody that it could have affected, 
except one poor fellow — or one class of poor fellows — the man 
or men who had a little bit of money to loan on a note with 
"undoubted personal security" or secured by mortgage. 

This fii'st repealing act was "class legislation" so rank and 
rotten that the poor fellows who had money to loan — -and who 
had it passed — became, no doubt, exceedingly solicitous for the 
well-being, prosperity and " business interests " of the "mer- 
chants, physicians and inn-keepers " and therefore came for- 
ward at the next meeting of the general assembly, in 1805, 
with an act repealing the whole of the second section of the 



Early Tennessee Legislation. 77 

original act ; and then the}' breathed eas}' and praised the Lord 
because they had entii-ely relieved the ' ' mercliants, physicians 
and inn-keepers" of this oclious act, which had for its object the 
prevention of requiring payment in "specie" where money 
should be stipulated for. 

This last full and final repealing act deserves to be fui-ther 
noted, and to be remembered with reverence — so to speak — ^for 
the reason that it is the first act passed in Tennessee in which 
the term "in the year of our Lord" is used. What an intel- 
lectual treat it must have been to hear the man (not the mem- 
ber of the general assembly) who prepared this last repealing 
act, explaining its provisions to the members of the general 
assembly, and pointing out to them the great benefits that were 
to accrue to the " merchants, physicians and inn-keepers" of 
the country by its passage ; and also to note with what rever- 
ential humility he bowed his head, and with what unction he 
read. " ' in the year of our Lord, ' who has put it into my mind 
and heart to prepare this great measure and ask j^ou to pass 
it"; and (aside) "has also made me a shining light in the 
church and the communit}'" — while, all the time and every min- 
ute, his greedy, covetous little soul was becoming more con- 
tracted, and visions of dollars or pounds in ' ' specie " were 
blinding him to the great truth that it would be easier for a 
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for such as he 
ever to enter the domain of " our Lord, " where "specie" is 
used only to pave streets. 

The county court records at Jonesboro show that, early in 
the nineties of the last century, slave-holders were emancipating 
their slaves. 

On October 2, 1797, an Act was passed by the General 
Assembly of Tennessee entitled, ' 'An Act to confirm the eman- 
cipation of a black man named Jack. " The preamble recites 



78 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

that, ' ' Whereas at Jul}' sessions One thousand seven hundred 
and ninety seven, John Stone, of Knoxville, in the State of 
Tennessee did appl}' to the County C*urt of Knox, for a license 
to emancipate, and forever set free a certain negro man slave, 
named Jack," etc., "which license hath issued to said John 
Stone, and whereas the said John Stone, on the thirty-first day 
of August 1797 . . . did emancipate, discharge and for- 
ever set free from all manner of servitude and slavery what- 
ever, the said 'uegro Jack. " The Act then confirms the eman- 
cipation, and confers upon the liberated slave "the name of 
John Saunders." 

On November 13, 1801, the General Assembly passed an 
act, entitled ' 'An Act empowering the count}' courts to eman- 
cipate slaves," the preamble of which recites that, "Whereas 
the number of petitions presented to this legislature, praying 
the emancipation of slaves, not only tend to involve the state 
in serious evils, but are also productive of great expense. For 
remedy whereof. Be it enacted" &c. The act then proceeds 
to confer power and authority upon the county courts generally 
to emancipate slaves upon the petition and request of the 
owners, and directs the clerks of such courts to record such 
proceedings and make out and issue to the emancipated slaves 
a certificate of emancipation. These old records will explain 
why it was that, twenty and twenty-five years later, the "Man- 
umission Intelligencer" and "The Emancipator" were pub- 
lished at Jonesboro and the ' ' Genius of Universal Emancipa- 
tion" at Greeneville. They show another fact, viz., that long 
before Elihu Embree^" Benjamin Lundy, William L. Garrison 

* Thomas Jefferson Wilson, an aged, intelligent and respected citizen, now 
nearly blind, living at Chesterton, in Washington county, Tenn., writing to me, 
April 1, 1897, among other things, says: "In the spring of 1833'il went to live with 
Elijah Enibree [brother of Elihu], and continued to reside with him until his death, 
in 1846. During this time I had access to all his books and papers, and I found a 
copy of ' The Emancipator,' I hunted up all of the numbers that had been issued, 




.\i i-. 



■ .\ I', i i 



M .-^i-,. 1780. 



Home of Klihu Kinbree, the founder and editor of the first afjolition paper published in the 
United States. Erected by his brotlier, Thomas Kmbree. about five miles west of Jones- 
boro, now near Telford's Station, on Southern Railway. From a photograph taken in 
April, 1897. 



Early Tennessee Legislation. 79 

and Harriet Beecher Stowe began the agitation of the abolition 
of slaver}' — in theorj" — in the public press, these people were 
not only thinJdng, but acting, on the subject — the great ques- 
tion that ultimatel}- shook the pillars of the American repub- 
lic, and earthquaked a continent when the shock of war came — 
these people were not only teaching but practising emancipa- 
tion. It would not only be unpatriotic, but filial impiety in the 
descendants of those people, to allow without protest their fame 
to diminish, and their views, deeds and accomplishments to be 
taken from them and credited to others. 

It must not be. It was easy indeed, for Embree, Lundy and 
others to drop in, twentj' to twenty-five 3'ears later, and join 
them in the advocacy of the policy of emancipating slaves, when 
the}^ found, or had heard before coming to the country, that 
manumission societies had been in existence for near a quarter 
of a century before, and when the county court records dis- 
closed the fact that these people were practising what thej^ ad- 
vocated, and when petitions to the general assembly of the 
state from the various counties ' ' praying the emancipation of 
slaves" were so numerous that they were about to involve the 
state in serious evils by turning irresponsible persons loose upon 
society and also entailing great expense. 

The reader, must not however, confuse the polic}^ advocated 
and practised by those people of emancipation or of manumit-' 
ting their slaves, with the doctrine of forcible abolition, or of 

and had James Dihvortli of Jonesboro to bind them iu book form. Elihii Embree 
claimed [iu ' The Emancipator'] that his paper was the first paper ever published iu 
the United States wholly in the interest of emancipation. It was a monthly paper, 
and the first number was published in 1820, durin": which year Embree died, and the 
paper ceased. The first movement that I know of in Tennessee in the interest of 
emancipation was among the Quakers. The}" organized a society on Lost Creek, in 
Jefferson county, from which sprang many similar societies all over East Tennessee. 
Charles Owens, Benjamin Lundy and a great many others who were emancipation- 
ists moved [from Eastern Tennessee] to Ohio between 1815 and 1820." 

With reference to this subject of the first abolition paper, see an interesting 
note on Elihu Embree, in the interpretation of the "Centennial Dream,"' in the 
appendix to this volume. 



80 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

freeing slaves by legislative enactment, withont the consent of 
the owner. Petitions, with nearly two thousand signers or 
names to them, coming from all settlements in the state (terri- 
tory) were presented to the Constitutional Convention in 1796, 
asking that a provision be embodied in the constitution prohib- 
iting slavery in the state after the year 1864. This was the 
voice of prophecy coming up out of the Weste)'?i Wilderness. 

True philanthrophy liberates its own slaves, and not other 
people's without their consent. 

The first private corporation chartered by the general assem- 
bly of Tennessee was the ' ' Nolichucky River Company, " No- 
vember 10, 1801. Its objects are briefly stated to be "to clear 
out and remove from the bed or channel of so much of the 
river Nolichucky as shall be within the limits of Washington, 
Greene and Jefferson counties, all and every obstruction which 
in any way impede or hinder the navigation of the same. " The 
tenth section of the act is as follows: 

Jie it enacted, That three custom houses be established on 
said river, for the purpose of receiving toll, in such places as 
the said Nolichucky River Company may think expedient; and 
any boat, craft or other vessel, entering in above the upper cus- 
tom house shall pay at the rate of one dollar per ton ; an}" boat, 
craft or other vessel, entering between the upper custom house 
and the second below, shall pay at the rate of seventy-five cents 
per ton; and any boat, craft or other vessel, entering in be- 
'tween the second custom house and the third, shall pay at the 
rate of fifty cents per ton. 

It is worth the time of the curious to read the whole of this 
act, as it is not probable that another like it can be found in 
the statute law of any other state. 

Another act deserving our attention is one passed by the 
third general assembly, creating the second private corpora- 
tion chartered in Tennessee. What a model it was and is for 
the guidance of all future general assemblies, and how free we 



Early Tennessee Legislation. 81 

would be today from the man}- questions that now vex courts 
and legislative bodies, if we had only followed this wise prece- 
dent. But we have not; our "swollen estimate of our own 
pre-eminence" seems to have so beclouded our minds as to cut 
off vision in both directions : too proud and stiff-necked to look 
back and stud}^ the example and teachings of our fathers, and 
too weak-minded, with all our boasting, to see a single span of 
life into the future, we have lost that which the}-, in their far- 
reaching mental grasp, held on to in the charter — control and 
regulation of private corporations by means of commissions 
appointed by state authority and compensated by the corpora- 
tion, these provisions being part and parcel of the charter. 
The act referred to was passed November 14, 1801, and incor- 
porated the Cumberland Turnpike Company — nothing but a 
little turnpike company, to build a road or public highway 
"from the district of Hamilton, across the Cumberland moun- 
tains to the district of Mero": but these backwoods pioneers, 
who (as we, their offspring, have supposed) did not know how 
to spell "railroad," "commission," "regulation," "freight," 
etc., actually had sense and foresight enough, without books 
and court decisions bearing on the subject to guide them, to 
embody in this second charter of a private corporation granted 
in Tennessee provisions as follows: 

1. It might make by-laws, rules and regulations not incon- 
sistent with the laws of the state. 

2. It must ' ' measure and mile-mark " the whole road, ' ' erect 
bridges and causeys" (causeways?), dig and level fields, hills 
and mountains to the width of fifteen feet, and maintain and 
keep the road in good order and repair. 

3. The life of the franchise is limited to a period of ten 
years. 

4. The corporation is required to execute a bond, in the sum 



82 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

of two thousand dollars, with approved securit}', for keeping 
the road in safe condition and good rej)air. 

5. The Governor shall appoint three commissioners, and they 
or either of them shall review and examine the condition of the 
road once in six months, and report its condition to the Gov- 
ernor. 

6. The company, on the completion of the road, is required 
to report to the Governor that the road has been completed in 
accordance with the charter requirements. 

7. Thereupon, the commissioners are to view and examine 
the road, and if they report to the Governor that the road has 
been completed in accordance with the true intent and meaning 
of the charter, the Governor will then issue a license to the 
company, permitting it to erect gates and collect toll. 

8. The toll that shall be demanded and received from the 
various kinds of vehicles, livestock, footmen, etc., is prescribed 
by the charter. 

9. It provides that, if any person shall sustain any damage 
on account of being detained by the keepers of said turnpikes, 
or on account of the road being out of repair, such person shall 
have an action against the company for the damages sustained. 

10. It fixes the compensation of the commissioners at two 
dollars per day while necessarily employed, which shall be paid 
by the corporation. 

11. It requires the road to be completed on or before the 
first day of September, 1802, in default of which all rights 
granted by the charter are forfeited. 

This charter takes up one page and two-thirds of another 
page of the acts as published, and is embodied, caption and 
all, in eighty -one printed lines; and yet almost every conceiv- 
able phase of the questions which have arisen between the peo- 
ple and such corporationsi, to annoy both and vex courts and 



Early Tennessee Legislation. 83 

general assemblies, are fully covered in this short charter, either 
in specific words, terms and provisions, or in the true intent 
and meaning of the whole. 

Some features of this charter deserve more than a passing 
notice. One. which limited the life of the corporation to ten 
years, is in keeping with and conformity to the great doctrine 
announced in the twenty-third paragraph of the ' ' declaration 
of rights" appended to and adopted as part of the state con- 
stitution in 1796, that "perpetuities and monopolies are con- 
trary to the genius of a free state, and shall not be allowed " : 
therefore they limited the life of this "monopoly" to ten 
years. As private citizens, the men who composed the general 
assembly believed in this doctrine; and, as representatives of 
the people, they stuck to it with a firmness and manliness 
worthy to be followed by all future legislative bodies. 

Another feature of this second charter, which should have 
commended it as a model in form and substance to future gen- 
eral assemblies, is the retention in its face of the right and 
power of the state to regulate and control the road, in its con- 
dition with reference to the safety of the travelling public, and 
the services to be rendered and the charges to be made therefor, 
as well as to require the corporation to pay the agents of the 
people, who were to supervise and regulate it in these partic- 
ulars. 

Here again, in this second charter of a private corporation 
for profit, is given unmistakable evidence that these early leg- 
islators believed in and adhered to that other fundamental 
principle proclaimed in the ' ' declaration of rights " — that ' ' all 
power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are 
founded on their authority and instituted for their peace, safety 
and happiness ; for the advancement of those ends, they have 
at all times an unalienable and indefeasible right to alter, re- 



84 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

form or abolish tlie government in such manner as they may 
think proper." They had probably not learned, so early, that 
it would ever be insisted by anj^one that the government could 
bring into existence a creature greater and more powerful than 
the creator; but fearing, no doubt, that such a claim might be 
set up, they put in the face of this charter an answer to any 
such pretence. It had not probably been intimated, at that 
early day, that a government which the people, in the exercise 
of their inherent power, could alter, reform or abolish at their 
pleasure, could nevertheless by its legislature bring into exist- 
ence an invisible, intangible, incorporeal entity which the peo- 
ple could neither control nor destroy, although they have the 
power to do both with reference to the creator of such entity; 
still, they said in the charter that all power is inherent in the 
people, and you take the rights, privileges and franchises 
granted, subject to their power to control and regulate your 
operations, and your dealings with and relations to the public. 
Two other features of this charter deserve to be thoughtfully 
considered. The first is that the corporation is made liable, in 
the face of its charter, for damages sustained by any person 
who shall be detained by the keepers of the turnpikes or the 
bad condition of the road. Under the language of the section, 
the liability is fixed and absolute, the plaintiff having to prove 
only two facts in any case : the fact that he was detained, and 
the amount of damage sustained — this was all; he did not 
have to prove negligence, or carelessness, ordinary or gross. 
The other feature is that which required the corporation to give 
a bond, with approved security, conditioned for keeping the 
road in good repair. The corporation might become insolvent, 
go into the hands of a receiver, come out again under a new 
organization, load up again with mortgages first, second and 
third, stock itself again and issue first and second preferred 



Early Tennessee Legislation. 85 

and common, and then collapse again ; but the bond which this 
charter required this corporation to give, and the security thereon, 
could not be cancelled, or touched by anyone except one who 
had sustained damages by reason of being detained by the 
keepers of the gates or the road being out of repair. The cor- 
poration might dissolve, become bankrupt, go out of business 
— but the bond and security remained. 

What a monument is this charter, granted to a private cor- 
poration for profit, to the wisdom and far-reaching foresight of 
the pioneer statesmen who framed and granted it; and how 
unfortunate it is, for both the people and for the corporations, 
that subsequent general assemblies in Tennessee have not en- 
grafted its principles upon all charters since granted to private 
corporations. 

' ' History repeats itself " only when and where human nature 
parallels itself : have legislative statesmen duplicated themselves 
in Tennessee? 



CHAPTER VI. 

MI BO, ALIAS '-ME BO.'-' 

IN November, 1784, the general assembh' of North Carolina, 
at Newbern, divided the district of Morgan, which had 
theretofore included all of the state ' ' west of the mount- 
ains, " and erected Washington, Sullivan, Greene and Davidson 
counties into a "Superior Court of Law and Equity" district, 
by the name of "Washington." From 1784 to 1788 all of the 
territory west of the Cumberland mountains was included in 
Davidson and Sumner counties, then the only organized counties 
in what is now Middle and West Tennessee. The population 
of Davidson county had so increased and extended westward 
from Nashville by the fall of 1788 that the general assembly 
of North Carolina, at Fayetteville, in November of that year, 
divided Davidson county by a line ' ' beginning on the Virginia 
line now Kentucky, thence south along Sumner county to the 
dividing ridge between Cumberland river and Red river, thence 
westwardly along said ridge to the head of the main south 
branch of Sycamore creek, thence down the said branch to the 
mouth thereof, thence due south across Cumberland river to 
Davidson county line." All that part of Davidson county west 
of this line was erected into a new county, which was named 
"Tennessee." Tennessee county, therefore, included all of 
the territory now within the limits of Montgomery, Robertson, 
Dickson, Houston and Stewart, and parts of Hickman, Hum- 
phreys and Cheatham. The county seat of Tennessee county 
was fixed at Clarksville. 

By another act of the general assembly of North Carolina, at 
Fayetteville, in November. 1788, the counties of Davidson, 



MiRO, ALIAS "Mero. " 87 

Sumner and Tennessee were erected into a new district for the 
holding of "Superior Courts of Law and Equity" therein. 
When this act forming the new district west of the Cumberland 
mountains was on its third and final reading, the Speaker called 
on the author of the bill for the name with which the blank left 
for that purpose was to be filled. James Robertson and Robert 
Hays were the members from Davidson, and one of them was 
the author of the bill providing for the new district. It is a 
matter of history that, in answer to the Speaker's call for the 
name of the new district, James Robertson arose and suggested 
"Mero." He evidently gave the name as it is pronounced, 
without spelling it for the benefit of the clerk, and the latter 
evidently recorded it phonetically; and thus the name of the 
new district went upon the official record as "Mero," which is 
the correct pronunciation, instead of ' ' Miro, " which is the cor- 
rect orthograph3\ The error, once committed, was perpetu- 
ated; and " Mero" it continued to be, not only in contemporary 
records and legal documents, but in subsequent histories.* 

The name as suggested by Robertson was adopted without 
open objection. It is probable that some of the leading spirits 
in the assembly had been made acquainted with the motive 
which prompted the selection of the name, while others, with- 
out any knowledge, opinion or preference, simply followed the 
leaders in accepting it. There were, however, some members 
who knew some things, but not everything, in connection with 
this name; and, on reflection, after the name had been adopted, 
they took offence at the selection, and it was discussed, not in 
the general assembly, but at the taverns and boarding-houses, 
with spirit and much feeling. They said that it Avas strange 
and unexampled that the name of an officer of a foreign govern- 
ment, who was not and had never been in our service, should 

*Haywood, Rumsey, Putnam and Phelaii unanimously and invariably so spell it. 



S8 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

1)6 given to a political division of our countiy and perpetuated 
on our public records. The}' wished to know what this meant. "'■' 
They knew, they said, that Don Estevan Miro was a colonel in 
the Spanish army, that he was also "Governor of Orleans," 
and they had heard that he was a very kind-hearted, agreeable 
gentleman; but so were scores of other foreigners, not to men- 
tion the names of the many loyal and distinguished citizens of 
the United States who had not been honored with any such 
mark of popular esteem. Why, said the}', select a Spaniard 
already ver}' distinguished, and at the very time when that na- 
tion unjustly withholds from us the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi river, and when this very Don Estevan Miro is the in- 
strument chosen by the Spanish king and court to guard the 
waters and mouth of the Mississippi and exclude us from its 
use? And this is not all; why, they continued, should a Span- 
ish official be so honored during the very same year when Spain 
was demanding of the Congress that the United States should 
relinquish the navigation of the Mississippi for a period of at 
least twenty-five years — a measure which, if acceded to, would 
completely break up and ruin all of the settlements in Kentucky 
and on the Cumberland? Still more, this mark of respect was 
shown to a Spanish soldier and governor at a time when the 
boatmen from the upper Mississippi, Ohio and Cumberland, if 
they dared to float their flatboats down the Mississippi to 
Natchez or New Orleans with their tobacco and other products, 
were subjected by the Spanish to the most outrageous fines and 
extortions, in the shape of duties imposed for the use of a great 
river, and also to seizure and sometimes to imprisonment. Last 
but not least, said they, this ver}' Don Estevan Miro is at this 
A^ery time negotiating and intriguing with certain persons in 
Kentucky and Cumberland, with a view of coming to terms 

* Haj'wood's History of Tennessee. 



MiRO, ALIAS "Mero." 89 

upon which Kentucky and the Cumberland countiy will become 
part of and submit to the government of Spain. Truly, it did 
appear rather cloudy. 

These various phases of the subject, and the situation of 
affairs at that particular time, gave to the tavern-talkers a wide 
field for speculation and conjecture, as well as alarm. The 
truth is, the correspondence and communications alleged to 
have passed between Grovernor Miro and certain citizens of 
Kentucky and the Cumberland country, about this time, would 
read rather curiously if offered in court to vindicate the Ken- 
tucky and Cumberland citizens from a charge of disloyalty to 
the United States. Col. Robertson, however, said nothing but 
"Miro"; and he subsequently demonstrated that he knew what 
he was sa3dng. 

It is suggested — and this is probably the correct view — that 
the main purpose of these persons in Kentucky and Cumber- 
land who were in correspondence wi^th Governor Miro was, in 
view of their unanswered appeals to Congress for help and pro- 
tection, ' ' if the federal Union can not give aid and protection 
to us in life, liberty and property, and also secure to us the 
free and peaceable exercise of the right to navigate the Missis- 
sippi river with our products, why then, Spain having promised 
all this, we will unite our fortunes with the Spanish." They 
knew that whoever could keep the Indians at peace with them, 
and at the same time control New Orleans and the navigation 
of the Mississippi, was the absolute arbiter of their destiny, 
inasmuch as, without the right to use the Mississippi, there 
was no market they could reach with their products. 

August 26, 1779, Galvez, then governor civil and military 
and intendant of Louisiana, appointed, as third in command in 
the campaign which he was about to undertake against the 
British, Don Estevan Miro, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 



90 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

Congress observed with satisfaction the rupture between Great 
Britain and Spain; and, in the fall of 1779, sent a minister to 
the Spanish court, with instructions to negotiate a treaty of alli- 
ance, and particularly to insist on the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi river. To this the court of Spain responded : ' ' We are 
disposed to acknowledge the independence of the United States, 
and to enter into a treaty of alliance and commerce with you ; 
but if you wish us to consent to your admission into the great 
family of nations, you must subscribe to the right of Spain to 
the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi, and consent to our 
taking possession of both the Floridas and of all the territory 
extending from the left bank of that river to the back settle- 
ments of the former British provinces, according to the procla- 
mation of 1763." In this proposition, strange as it may seem, 
Spain was supported by France; and up to 1788, and indeed on 
up to October 27, 1795, Spain did control the Mississippi. On 
this latter date, and about six months before Tennessee was ad- 
mitted into the Union, after long and tedious negotiations, a 
treaty was concluded between the United States and Spain, a 
part of the fourth article of which reads as follows: ' 'And his 
Catholic Majesty has likewise agreed that the navigation of the 
said river Mississippi, in its whole breadth from the source to 
the ocean, shall be free to only his subjects and the citizens of 
the United States, unless he shall extend this privilege to the 
subjects of other powers by special convention." At the time 
this treaty was entered into. Governor Miro was in Spain, in 
attendance, it has been said, on the court at Madrid. He was 
then a lieutenant-general in the Spanish army, and held in great 
esteem in Spain, and nothing is more probable than that his 
counsel and advice on the subject of the proposed treaty were 
sought. It was entirely natural that, when asked for his views, 
he should remember James Robertson, Daniel Smith and Rob- 



MiRO, ALIAS "MeRO." 91 

ert Hays, the courtesy shown him and the friendly and respect- 
ful treatment which he had received from the inhabitants of the 
district named in his honor, and that he should therefore favor 
the concession of this right. In the very nature of things, the 
district of " Mero, " misspelled though it was, and the circum- 
stances connected with and surrounding its baptism and the 
man who was its sponsor, ought to and must have a place, not 
only in Tennessee history, but in the true history of the United 
States. 

The Spaniards, constantly haunted by fear of their restless 
neighbors in Kentucky and the Cumberland country, spared no 
means by which they might conciliate the Indians. The chief 
military officer of the Spanish, writing to the home government, 
in 1786, concerning Alexander McGillivray, said: "So long as 
we shall hold this chief on our side, we will have a barrier 
between the Floridas and Georgia. The Indians are convinced 
of the ambition of the Americans; past injuries still dwell in 
their minds, with the fear that these greedy neighbors may one 
day seize upon their lands. It ought to be one of the chief 
policies of this government to keep this sentiment alive in the 
breasts of the Indians." Alexander McGillivray was a noted 
tory during the Revolution, and had taken refuge after its 
close among the Creek nation. He was a man of great courage 
andi intelligence, entertained inveterate hostility to the whites, 
and had an Insatiable ambition for personal promotion. He 
was in the Spanish pay, as agent of that government among 
the Indians, had usurped regal authority, and was also chief of 
the Talapouches. It is said that he cherished the hope of hav- 
ing his nation admitted into the federal compact, although he 
was in the service of Spain, with the rank of colonel, and was 
afterward promoted to be commissary general. This dangerous 
man was under the absolute control of Governor Miro in 1788, 



92 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History 

when the name of the hitter was bestowed by Robertson on the 
new district. The fact that Miro had control of the Mississippi 
river, and at the same time almost absolute command over the 
Indians in the south, furnishes, it is believed, the logical ex- 
planation of the motive which prompted Robertson and Hays 
to compliment him by giving his name to the newly established 
judicial district. 

In 1788 Miro was made civil and military governor and in- 
tendant of Louisiana and West Florida. In this year McGlil- 
livray wrote him that two delegates from the district of Cum- 
berland had just visited him with proposals of peace ; that they 
were in extremities on account of the incursions of his (McGil- 
livray's) warriors, and would submit to whatever conditions he 
might impose ; and, ' ' presuming that it would please me, they 
added that they would throw themselves in the arms of His 
Majesty as subjects, and that Kentucky and Cumberland are 
determined to free themselves from Congress; that they no 
longer owe obedience to a power which is incapable of protect- 
ing them. They desired to know my sentiments on the propo- 
sitions, but as it embraces important political questions, I 
thought proper not to divulge my views." Miro, commenting 
on this letter, saj's : 

I consider as extremel}' interesting the intelligence conveyed 
to McGillivray by the deputies on the fermentation existing in 
Kentucky, with regard to a separation fi'om the Union. Con- 
cerning the proposition made to McGlillivray by the inhabitants 
of Cumberland to become the vassals of His Majesty, I have 
refrained from returning any precise answer. 

McGrillivray was no doubt, at the very time he was writing to 
Miro, also in the service and pay of the British; for, in April, 
1788, in a letter dated at "Little Tellisee, Upper Creek Na- 
tion," and addressed to Colonels Anthony Bledsoe and James 
Robertson, he says, among other things : 



MiRO, ALIAS "Mero." 93 

Mr. Hackett arrived here a few Days ngo and Delivered me 
your letter, together with one from Col. Hawkins. Agreeably 
to your request I will be Explicit and Candid in my answer to 
yours, and will not deny that my Nation had waged war against 
your Countr}^ for several years past, but that we had no mo- 
tives of revenge, nor did it proceed from any Sense of Injurys 
Sustained from your people, but being warml}' attached to the 
British, and being under their Influence, our operations were 
directed by them against you in common with other Americans. 

The letter from which the foregoing is quoted is of consider- 
able length. I have seen the original, with two others, and 
have "true and perfect copies" of all three.* That from 
which I have quoted above bears entirely upon the subject of 
a peace proposed between the Creek nation and Cumberland in. 
the letter of Colonels Bledsoe and Robertson to which it is an 
answer; and there is not one word in McGillivray's letter which 
indicates, even remotely, that Robertson and Bledsoe had 
made any such proposition to him as he had communicated to 
Miro. Col. Robertson had written him, telling him, among 
other things, that a number of the settlers on Cumberland had 
been killed recently by his warriors — ' ' among those unfortunate 
persons," says Robertson, "were my third son." 

Further along in McGillivray's letter to Bledsoe and Robert- 
son, he says: "I had received his Excel. Governor Caswell's 
letter and Duplicate only a short time before the unlucky affair 
— so that I Diff erred writing an answer until I could be satisfyed 
in my own mind that he might Depend on what I should say to 
him, as I abhor every Species of Duplicity. I wish not to de- 
ceive. " He concludes as follows: "I have endeavored to make 
everything as agreeable as my Situation permits to Messrs. 
Hackett & Ewing" — which shows that the men named are the 
" two delegates from the district of Cumberland" referred to in 

*This "big Injun" seems to have written his name as the fancy struck him. 
The signature to one of the letters is " McGillivray," while the other two are signed 
" McGilveray." All are in the same handwriting, and all are evidently autographic. 



94 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

his letter to Miro; and these two letters, taken together, show 
what a treacherous villain and liar he was, notwithstanding his 
abhorrence of '• every Species of Duplicity." 

In April, 1789, writing to General Wilkinson of Kentucky, 
who was his confederate in the undertaking to separate Ken- 
tucky, Miro says: 

I have just received two letters, one from Brig. Gen. Daniel 
Smith, dated on the 4th of March, and the other from Col. 
James Robertson, with date of the 11th of January, both 
written from the district of Miro. The bearer, Fagot [Hack- 
ett?], a confidential agent of Gen. Smith, informed me that 
the inhabitants of Cumberland, or Miro, would ask North Car- 
olina for an act of separation the following fall, and that as 
soon as this should be obtained other delegates would be sent 
from Cumberland to New Orleans, with the object of placing 
that territory under the domination of His. Majesty. I replied 
to both in general terms. 

On the next day after writing this letter, Governor Miro 
wrote to Gen. Daniel Smith "and Col. James Robertson, saying, 
among other things: 

The giving of my name to your district has caused me much 
satisfaction, and I feel myself highly honored by the compli- 
ment. It inci'eases my desire to contribute to the development 
of the resources of that province and the prosperity of its in- 
habitants. I am extremely flattered at your proposition to 
enter into correspondence with me, and I hope that it will 
afliord me the opportunity to be agreeable to you. 

These letters, messages and communications between Governor 
Miro and leading citizens of Miro District are more simple and 
straightforward than diplomatic. The reader of this part of 
our history, however, must keep in mind the precarious condition 
of the citizens of the Miro District at this period : a vast wilder- 
ness of more than two hundred and fifty miles behind them, 
savage Indians on both sides and the Spanish in front of 
them; with their state government and Congress both so weak 
that neither was able to extend them the slightest aid or pro- 



MiRO, ALIAS "Mero." 95 

tection — thus situated, they very naturally turned in the direc- 
tion that not only had the power but gave the promise of pro- 
tection and assistance. Miro, in acknowledging the compliment 
conveyed by bestowing his name on the new court district, 
said : "It increases my desire to contribute to the development 
of the resources of that province and the prosperity of its in- 
habitants. " In the year 1790, the Spanish court, contrary to 
the advice of Governor Miro, made a formal order levying a 
tax or dut}' of fifteen per cent, on all produce or freight 
carried down the Mississippi river. This order so inflamed the 
people of Kentucky and Miro District that it had the effect 
feared by Miro, of practically breaking off and forever ending 
further negotiations between him and the people of Miro Dis- 
trict on the subject of the Cumberland country becoming a 
Spanish province. 

Judge Martin, in his history of Louisiana, says that, at about 
the period of time when these letters were passing, there were 
five parties in the western country — one in favor of the forma- 
tion of a new republic unconnected with the United States, and 
a close alliance with Spain; another that wished the western 
part of the United States to become a portion of the province 
of Louisiana and to submit to the laws of Spain; a third, de- 
sirous of war with Spain, an open , invasion of Louisiana and 
the seizure of the Mississippi and New Orleans; a fourth, pro- 
posing b}^ a show of war to prevail on Congress to extort from 
Spain the right to the free navigation of the Mississippi; the 
fifth, as unnatural as the second, was to solicit France to pro- 
cure a retrocession of Louisiana and to extend her protection 
to Kentucky' and Cumberland. 

The administration of Miro in Louisiana terminated with the 
year 1791. In a letter to the Spanish court, written in the pre- 
vious year, asking permission to return to Spain, he says : "I 



96 Dkopped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

have now bad the honor of serving the King, always with dis- 
tinguished zeal, for thirtj' years and three months, of which 
twenty-one years and eight months in America, until the state 
of my health requires my return to Europe." He returned to 
Spain, where he continued his military career, being promoted 
from the rank of brigadier to that of lieutenant-general. ' ' He 
carried with him, " says Judge Martin, " the good wishes and 
regrets of the colonies." 

The character of Miro was that of a kind-hearted, benevo- 
lent, upright gentleman. Leprosy prevailed in Louisiana, and 
one of Miro's first acts, on being appointed Governor, was to 
erect a hospital for the unfortunate victims of that disease, on 
a ridge lying between the Mississippi river and Bayou St. John, 
which was called "Leper's Land." Instances were related in 
which Miro would intercede with a creditor to give further time 
to an unfortunate debtor, and on failing to obtain such indul- 
gence, he would satisfy the debt out of his private funds. In 
April, 1786, the king of Spain issued a royal order, approving 
the course and conduct of Miro, who, in the preceding year, 
had granted the former British subjects in Baton Rouge and 
Natchez, which had been conquered by the Spanish, ample time 
to sell their property, collect their debts and remove their per- 
sons and effects. 

Don Estevan Miro left his name on the judicial records and 
reports of Tennessee, where it remained until November 4, 1809, 
when, by act of the general assembly, the state was divided 
into five judicial circuits, to which the act affixed numbers in- 
stead of names. Miro District, in addition to Davidson, Sum- 
ner and Tennessee counties, included at one time the counties 
of Smith, Wilson and Williamson. When ' ' the territory of 
the United States of America south of the river Ohio " was ad- 
mitted into the Union as the state of Tennessee, the county of 



MiRO, ALIAS "Mero." 97 

Tennessee, at the first session of the general assembly, by an 
act passed April 9, 1796, was divided into Montgomery and 
Robertson counties. Thus the "District of Mero" and "Ten- 
nessee county" appeared on and then disappeared trom the face 
of the map and the public records of the state of Tennessee. 

The "Superior Courts of Law and Equity" for the Miro 
District were held in Nashville. An act of the first session of 
the first general assembly of Tennessee, passed April 22, 1796, 
recites that the court house, or the ' ' office of the clerk and 
master of the District of Mero was lately destroyed by fire, 
and the books, records and papers thereof lost," etc., and then 
provides for setting up the records. 

While the capital and the state treasury were located at Knox- 
ville, there was a branch treasury kept in the Miro District at 
Nashville. 

The present chief justice of the United States, Hon. Melville 
W. Fuller, in an opinion on the constitutionalit}' of a recent 
law of the state of Michigan, providing for the selection of 
presidential electors by a vote of each congressional district 
separately taken, refers to an act of the general assembly of 
the state of Tennessee, which appointed a committee of citizens 
in the District of Miro and empowered it to elect presidential 
electors — the chief justice, as I understand him, approving 
both these methods as a compliance with the constitution. The 
act referred to is worthy of acquaintance, and I therefore em- 
body the substance of it in this chapter, as I presume that 
there are very few persons familiar with its provisions. The 
act was passed August 8, 1796, and is as follows: 

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ten- 
nessee, that three electors shall be elected, one in the district 
of "Washington, one in the district of Hamilton and one in the 
district of Mei'o, as directed by this Act, to elect a president 
and vice president of the United States, and that the said 
7 



9S Dropped Stitches i\ Tennessee History. 

electors may be elected with as little trouble as possible to the 
citizens. 

Sec. 2nd. Be it enacted that John Carter, John Adams, and 
John McCollester of the County of Washington; John Rhea, 
John Spurgeon and Robert Allison of Sullivan County; Daniel 
Kennedy, Joseph Hardin and James Stinson of the county of 
Greene; and Richard Mitchell, John Young and Bartlet Mar- 
shall of the county of Hawkins, are appointed electors to elect 
an elector for that purpose for the district of Washington; 
John Adair, Charles McClung and Samuel Fionuagan of the 
County of Knox; Andrew Henderson, Josiah Jackson and 
Christopher Hains of the County of Jefferson; Samuel Mc- 
Grahe}^, Josiah Gist, Alexander Montgomery of the County of 
Sevier; and Robert Bold, William Lowr}^ and David Caldwell 
of Wells Station of the County of Blount, are appointed elect- 
ors to elect an elector for the purpose aforesaid for the district 
of Hamilton; Thomas MoUoy, William Donelson and George 
Ridley of the County of Davidson; Kasper Mansco, Edward 
Douglass and John Hogan of the County of Sumner; George 
Nevill senior, Josiah Fort and Thomas Johnson of the late 
county of Tennessee, are appointed electors to elect an elector 
in the District of Mero, for the purpose aforesaid. 

Sec. 4. The electors in this Act before named shall convene, 
those for the District of Washington at Jonesborough, those 
for the District of Hamilton at Knoxville, and those for the 
District of Mero at Nashville, on the Second Monday of No- 
vember in the year 1796, and being so convened, they, or so 
many of them as shall attend on said day, proceed to elect by 
ballot an elector qualified as by this Act directed, for the pur- 
pose aforesaid. 

The act further provides that, "if two or more persons shall 
have the same number of votes, it shall be decided in the same 
manner as Grand Jurors are drawn for, in the Superior Courts" 
— that is, the names of such persons as received the same num- 
ber of votes were to be written on slips of paper and put into a 
box or hat; a boy under twelve years of age then drew out one 
of the slips, and the person whose name appeared thereon re- 
ceived the certificate of election. 

The electors chosen received certificates of election signed by 
the committee, and the three electors thus chosen were directed 



MiRo, ALIAS "Mero." 99 

by the act to ' ' convene at Knoxville on the first Wednesday in 
December, 1796, and proceed to elect a president and vice- 
president of the United States." 

This act, or method of selecting presidential electors, was re- 
enacted by the general assembly of Tennessee, October 26, 
1799, for the presidential election to occur in 1800. I am not 
aware that this method of selecting presidential electors was 
ever adopted by any other state. 

This seeming digression from the main subject will be par- 
doned, in view of the fact that Chief Justice Fuller, as I under- 
stand him, refers to the act under consideration as applicable 
only to the Miro District. 

The method of choosing presidential electors prescribed in 
this act shows how implicitly the people at that time trusted 
their representatives, and also the confidence the representa- 
tives reposed in the judgment and patriotism of the citizen, as 
well as the confidence which the people then had in the honor 
and patriotism of each other. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AXDRJEW JACKSON AS A " SPOUT/' 

IN many respects Andrew Jackson was the most interesting, 
picturesque and unique character America has produced. 
Scotch and Irish blood commingling in his veins, there was 
a perfect blend of the characteristics of both races, and in ad- 
dition thereto he had some traits and besetments peculiarly his 
own. In his calm and restful moods, he was as tender and 
serene as a child, and easily accessible by the very humblest; 
but when the storm of passion swept over his soul, he was a 
flaming furnace of fury, almost wholly heedless of conse- 
quences, and as much to be feared and avoided as an enraged 
lion. In the face of perils he had the dauntlessness of John 
Knox, and was an exact counterpart of the great reformer when 
he threw down the gage of battle to the Roman hierarchy. A 
soldier by nature, he scoffed at the prescribed rules of military 
movements, and made his own tactics, surpassing even the 
Corsican prodigy in martial genius and originality, as the 
trained soldiers of Pakenham, who won the bloody field of 
Waterloo, testified involuntarily when they fled in defeat and 
dismay before his undisciplined militia from the gates of New 
Orleans. 

The highest order of statesmanship wrought in him its per- 
fect work. If he was not the founder, he was the preserver, of 
a great party. He was a sturdy patriot. Love of couutr}' was 
the controlling emotion of his great soul. The determination 
which animated him, crystallized in his stern pronouncement, 
" The federal union: it must be preserved! " crushed an incip- 
ient rebellion as a giant would crush a shell of glass. 



Andbew Jackson as a "Spoht." 101 

His judicial admiuistratioii was signalized by clear discern- 
ment, keen analysis, deep penetration, ready and correct de- 
cision, and an instinct to trail the sly and devious cunning of 
wrong and guilt. 

Jackson lacked the refinements of fashion and the polished 
graces of the courtier, but his quick grasp of every situation 
and his instinctive sense of the proprieties bore him with com- 
posure and dignity through all the social ordeals through which 
he had to pass. Still, in these functions he had a will and a 
way of his own, and little he recked whether others were pleased 
or affronted. 

Jackson's figure, like the shadow of the Brocken, grows more 
colossal as we recede from it. 

This is one side of Jackson's life — the sober, serious side — 
an unblurred career of honor, usefulness and triumph, for which 
the truth-loving muse of history never tires of garlanding his 
name with the most loving eulogies. As is usually the case 
with mortals, there was a reverse side of Jackson's character. 
Here we find a few spots on the otherwise white flower of a 
blameless life. 

In the years before honors thrust themselves so thick and 
fast upon him, he was what would now be called a "sport." 
The semi-civilization of the time, his rugged environment, the 
lack of training consequent upon the loss of his natural guard- 
ians, his absolute dependence upon himself, and his high-born 
spirit that could brook no control, combine to form an eloquent 
plea in extenuation of the few "indiscretions" that were min- 
gled with so many commendable traits. He loved the excite- 
ment and wild abandon of the chase, and the deep-mouthed 
pack's " heav}'^ bay, resounding up the rocky way" and mount- 
ain solitudes, was sweeter music to his enraptured ear than a 
thunderous jumble of Dutch diapasons to a Wagnerian devotee. 



102 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

Jackson was fond of adventure and games requiring daring, 
alertness, skill and strength, and engaged with the heartiest 
zeal in all the rude hilarities of pioneer life; but horse-racing 
was his special weakness. At the time spoken of, he knew a 
great deal more about the "points" of a flyer than he did about 
Blackstone, the science of government or the ten command- 
ments. A fleet-footed horse was his idol, and when he saw 
one equal or break the record made by Maggie on the night 
when she outstripped the witches of Kirk Alloway with fright- 
ened Tarn O'Shanter clinging to her mane, his was the ecstacy 
of the swain in his earliest love. On this "weak point" 
hangs an o'er-true tale, and the event gives a true insight into 
Jackson's character when he was at his worst. 

It happened along in the eighties of the last century, when 
Jackson was a resident of Washington county and boarded 
with Christopher Taylor (familiarly known as "Kit Taylor," 
and grandfather of Skelton Taylor of Chattanooga), who lived, 
as stated in an earlier chapter, about one mile below Jones- 
boro, on the road to the Brown settlement. At this time, 
Jackson's "weakness" was at its weakest, and horse-racing 
was his most delightful occupation. He had a racer upon 
which he lavished his time and his affections, and which he 
imagined was the fastest in all the country ; and he was eager 
to "back his judgment" with all the means at his command. 
Col. Love, who lived in Greasy Cove, then a part of Wash- 
ington county and now of Unicoi, owned the champion flyer 
of the new country, having even defeated the fastest horses 
over in Virginia, about Wolf Hills, where Abingdon now 
stands. Jackson envied Love, and was determined to rob him 
of his laurels and becloud the reputation of his horse. He 
sent a challenge, which was promptly accepted. 

The race was widel}' and graphically advertised. In all the 



Andreav Jackson as a "Sport." 103 

contests of equine speed, it would have no prototype in the 
past and no rival in the future. All upper East Tennessee 
was stirred into a ferment of excitement, which grew more 
intense ever}^ day, from the time of the announcement until 
the event took place. The coming horse-race became the 
absorbing, exclusive topic of conversation at the log-rollings, 
house-raisings, quiltings, distilleries, stores, school-houses, 
firesides, inns and before and after "meetin'." Children 
caught the infection from the adults, and the dogs, if they 
have the intelligence with which they are credited, doubtless 
cast knowing winks at each other when their respective owners 
discussed the universal theme and speculated upon the outcome 
of the to-be-incomparable event. 

The place selected for the race was in Grreasy Cove, on the 
farm now owned by the Loves. Tall mountains looked down 
on lower heights, and these in turn on the spot to be made his- 
toric — a poem of nature, a di'eam of beauty in a setting of 
scenic grandeur, embroidered with the silver fretwork of the 
Nolichucky's restless billows. 

The track was a half-circle, half a mile long. 

The advertised day, in the summer or early fall of 1788, 
came at last, and with it the popular excitement pitched to the 
highest tension. And such a heterogeneous mass as swarmed 
into that sequestered valley — the old, the young, farmers, 
workers in wood and iron, lawyers, doctors, saints, sinners, 
and even preachers; on foot and horseback, singly, in groups 
and in vast cavalcades, from Washington, Greene, Hawkins, 
Sullivan, and from the Wolf Hills of Virginia. Civilization 
had not yet reached a sufficient development to produce a 
"moonshiner," but "the rosy" flowed as copiously as if some 
magician had changed the neighboring streamlets into the crys- 
tal elixir, and the number of fisticuffs was in proportion to its 



104 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

ijonsumption. As was the custom of the day, the fellows 
" spilin' for a fight" stripped to the waist line and fought in a 
ring, and when one cried, " Take him off!" the mill ended, the 
bitten, gouged and bleeding combatants "made up," washed, 
dressed, and sealed the pact of peace with a drink of whiskey 
from the same gourd. The men who met at Sycamore shoals, 
followed "the sword of the Lord and of Gideon" across the 
Alleghanies under Sevier and Shelby, drove the Hessian hordes 
from King's Mountain and closed the final chapter of the Revo- 
lution with one of its grandest triumphs, were there. The 
pioneer who built his fort-cabin in the wilderness and shot the 
prowling savage through a chink in the wall, was there, with 
his faithful spouse and the rest of the family. The lovesick 
swain in his flax linen, with his bonnie lass in a gown of snowy 
cotton, who caused the mountain roses to pale with envy as 
she glided like a sylph among them, was there also. But the 
horse-race overshadowed everything else in interest and im- 
portance. 

Jackson had been training his horse for months in advance 
in "Kit" Taylor's neighborhood, and the racer knew his mas- 
ter's imperious will perfectly. He "smelt the battle afar oflf, " 
and perhaps at the same time "danger in the tainted air"; but 
when the test came, the determination to be first under the 
string thrilled everj- fiber and sinew in his lithe and wiry bod3\ 

The betting was fast and furious, and the reckless readiness 
of the gamblers, following the example of the contestants, to 
risk all on their favorite steed, would have taken away the 
breath of even the "plunger" of today. Guns, furs, iron, 
clothing, cattle, horses, negroes, crops, lands and all the money 
procurable were staked on the result. No "boom" period in 
that section saw so much property change hands in so short a 
time. 



Andrew Jackson as a "Sport." 105 

A week or ten clays before the race, Jackson was overtaken 
Tjy a serious disappointment. His jockey, a negro boy belong- 
ing to Taylor, was taken down with a violent fever. Jackson 
announced his determination to ride the race himself, and Love 
readily agreed to the proposition. When this arrangeqjent be- 
came known, the throng became delirious with enthusiasm and 
delight. The judges, who had been selected after a good deal 
of finesse and some wrangling, were stationed half and half at 
each end of the semicircular track. Jackson appeared on his 
restless and impatient flyer, with a haughty air of confidence 
and self-possession, the rival steed prancing at his side, under 
the control of a born jockey, who well knew the responsibility 
resting upon him and how to act his part on the momentous 
occasion. They were started with a shout that shook the azure 
vault above and reverberated in answering echoes from the sur- 
rounding mountains. The horses were marvels of symmetry 
and beauty, and in fine condition for speed and endurance. At 
the word " Gro! " they shot out on the smooth track as if they 
had been hurled from two monster mortars. On they sped, 
neck and neck. The jockey was the hazy outline of a boy 
printed on the air : Jackson rode as if he were part of his spec- 
tral horse. The yells of the onlookers packed around the cres- 
cent course would have drowned the blending screams of a hun- 
dred steam-whistles. All at once, the Love horse spurted ahead. 
The partisans of Jackson got their breath in gasps. The victor 
whizzed under the string like an arrow, leaving Old Hickory to 
make the goal at his leisure. If Jackson's horse was a wind- 
splitter that left a blue line behind him, Love's was the same as a 
belated streak of lightning chasing a hurricane that had outrun 
it. Just for a moment there was the deep, ominous hush that 
precedes the crash of the tempest; then a pandemonium of 
noise and tumult that might have been heard in the two neigh- 



106 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

boring states broke loose. It awoke the black bear from his 
siesta, and the frightened red deer ' ' sprang from his heathery 
couch in haste" and sought the distant heights. The loud, 
long and deep profanity would have discounted the ' ' army in 
Flanders." Jackson was the star actor in this riot of passion 
and frenzy. His brow was corrugated with wrath. His tall, 
sinewy form shook like an aspen leaf. His face was the livid 
color of the storm-cloud when it is hurling its bolts of thunder. 
His Irish blood was up to the boiling-point, and his eyes 
flashed with the fire of war. He was an overflowing Vesuvius 
of rage, pouring the hot lava of denunciation on the Love 
family in general and his victorious rival in particular. Col. 
Love stood before this storm unblanched and unappalled — for 
he too had plenty of "sand," and as lightly esteemed the value 
of life — and answered burning invective with invective hissing 
with the same degree of heat and exasperation. Jackson de- 
nounced the Loves as a "band of land pirates," because they 
held the ownership of nearly all the choice lauds in that section. 
Love retorted by calling Jackson ' ' a damned long, gangling, 
sorrel-topped soap-stick." The exasperating offensiveness of 
this retort may be better understood when it is explained that in 
those days women "conjured" their soap by stirring it with a 
long sassafras stick. 

The dangerous character of both men was well known, and 
it was ended by the interference of mutual friends, who led the 
enraged rivals from the grounds in diflferent directions. 

It is probable that this crushing defeat, with its intense 
mortification and odious memories, gave Jackson a profound 
distaste for the turf and other time-wasting sports of pioneer 
life. At all events, he turned his attention to the sober and 
"weightier matters" of life, and eagerly embraced the "tide 
in the affairs of men" which led to fame and fortune, and en- 



Andrew Jackson as a ''Sport." 107 

abled him, on the field of battle, in the forum of law, in the 
council hall and at the head of a great nation, to make for 
himself 

" One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die." 

The incidents and results of this celebrated horse-race did 
not in the least discredit Jackson in the estimation of the people 
where it occurred, as was shown long afterward. While it was 
difficult to exaggerate the great victory gained over the British 
at New Orleans by G-en. Jackson, still it was somewhat ex- 
aggerated by the time the news of it reached Jonesboro. 
Some few days after the first account of the battle had reached 
the town — in a letter from a Knoxville gentlemail to a friend 
in Jonesboro — some court day or other public occasion had 
caused quite a crowd to collect in town, and the gentleman 
who had received the letter was requested to make a public 
announcement of its contents to the anxious and excited pop- 
ulace. This he did in front of the court-house. The excite- 
ment was at blood heat, but perfect silence and order prevailed 
while the gentleman was making his speech — for such it was, 
as he did not actually read the letter. The substance of the 
speech was that Gen. Jackson had killed the whole of the 
British army on the battle-field, except a few who were driven 
into the Mississippi river and drowned ; that he had captured 
all of their arms and ships, and had taken his own army on 
board the vessels, and was then on the high seas on his way to 
take possession of England. At this point, which was the 
conclusion of the speech, and old man of sixty, standing near 
the speaker, threw his hat into the air, and jumping excitedly 
up and down, shouted : ' ' Whoop-pee ! hurrah for Andy Jack- 
son, hell and thunder ! I knowed, the day I seed him ride 
that hoss-race in Greasy Cove, that he could whup anybody' !" 



108 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

The scene that followed was without a precedent in the history 
of the town, not even the return of Sevier with his conquering 
heroes from King's Mountain having caused more rejoicing 
and celebrating. From and after that time, the exclamation 
of Gen. Jackson's enthusiastic admirer became a saying in the 
country round about ; and when news of an earthquake, the 
burning of a town or city, the sinking of a ship at sea with all 
on board, would be told to some not over-reverent citizen, he 
would exclaim, "Andy Jackson, hell and thunder !" as the only 
words adquate to express his feelings on the reception of news 
of such a catastrophe. 

The deep-rooted, heartfelt, undying hatred of the British 
which these people nursed, kept alive and handed down, may 
be illustrated by the recital of a few facts which came within 
my own knowledge and observation. During the recent war 
between the states, there was much said and written, at one 
period, about England recognizing the independence of the 
Southern Confederacy, and entering into diplomatic or friendly 
relations with the Confederate government. While this subject 
was under discussion, I heard old men, who were intense in 
their loyalty to the Southei-n cause, and who had sent their sons 
all into the Confederate army, declare openly and vehemently 
that, if the Southern Confederacy ' ' made friends with the 
British," they would renounce their allegiance to it and bring 
their boys home; that they had rather be subjugated by the 
Yankees than to conquer with the aid of "the British"! 

So late as 1882-3, Sir Thomas Watson, an Englishman, spent 
several months in Jonesboro, examining and negotiating for a 
valuable piece of iron property in Yv''ashington county. He 
would come to my office occasionally, and would sit and talk 
with me. On one of these occasions, an old friend of mine, 
some sevent}^ years of age, came in, and I introduced him to 
Sir Thomas, telling him that the latter was from England. My 



Andrew Jackson as a "Sport." 109 

old friend sat down, but did not address a word to tlie gentle- 
man to whom I had introduced him during the half or three- 
quarters of an hour which ensued ; but I noticed him more than 
once looking at the Englishman very much as if he was "draw- 
ing a bead" on him along the barrel of a rifle. When Watson 
left the office, the old gentleman's eyes followed him. As the 
door closed after him, my old friend drew a breath of relief, 
and asked, "What's he doing here?" When I told him, he 
appeared incredulous. "I don't believe he's after any good," 
he said; "better have nothing to do with a Britisher. This 
one may be a spy. If And}' Jackson was alive, and was to 
hear of that man being here, I'll bet he would drive him out of 
this country! " 

The race-horse in Grreasy Cove, in the shadow of the mount- 
ain over which Jackson had crossed a few months before, and 
in the midst of the early settlements of Tennessee, was not the 
last time he appeared on horseback in the presence of his ad- 
miring and applauding countrymen. In 1833 President Andrew 
Jackson rode on horseback along Broadway in the city of New 
York, in a "roaring wave" of shouts that came from a " sea 
of upturned faces " which lined the whole way of his triumphal 
ride through the great thoroughfare of the great city, where 
men, women and children had gathered to get even a passing 
glimpse of the hero of the hour. He was then sixty-six years 
old, but his horsemanship, acquired in part at the celebrated 
race in Greasy Cove, prevented on this occasion a serious acci- 
dent to the President of the United States. It was said by those 
who witnessed the manner in which he sat upon and controlled 
the spirited and frightened charger which he rode, that the 
horse would have dashed any other man headlong from the 
saddle; but Jackson was as cool and calm as he was skillful, 
and soon brought the animal under perfect control — as he soon 
afterwards did Nicholas Biddle and the United States Bank. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JA CKSON'S D UEL Wl TH A VER Y. 

AIGHTSTILL AVERY was the most prominent man and 
the leading lawyer in Western North Carolina when An- 
drew Jackson came to the bar. At that time, and indeed 
from the time of the organization of the first court west of the 
Blue Ridge, Aver}' had the most extensive practice of any law- 
yer attending the courts east or west of the mountains. He 
began his professional life west of the Alleghanies with the or- 
ganization of the first court in Washington county, and was 
therefore a well-known, as he was a reputable and highly re- 
spected, lawyer before Jackson's appearance there. "He was 
born in Norwich, Connecticut, and was educated at Princeton, 
from which he graduated in 1766. He was a tutor in that 
college for a year, when he removed to Maryland, and studied 
law under Littleton Dennis. He emigrated to North Carolina, 
and was licensed to practise law in 1769. He encouraged edu- 
cation and literature, and was a most devoted friend of liberty. 
He led the bold spirits of his day in his patriotic county, and 
was a member of the convention in 1775, at Mecklenburg, that 
declared for independence. The minutes of the proceedings 
show his zeal in the cause of liberty, and the confidence of his 
countrymen in his talents and integrity is proved by the im- 
portant duties he was engaged to perform. This called down 
upon him the vengeance of the enemy; for, when Lord Corn- 
wallis occupied Charlotte, the law office of Col. Avery, with all 
his books and papers, was burnt. In 1775, he was a delegate 
from Mecklenburg in the state Congress at Hillsboro which 
placed the state in military organization. In 1776, he was a 



Jackson's Duel with Ayery. Ill 

delegate of the same to the same, which met at Halifax and 
formed the state constitution. He was appointed one of the 
signers to the proclamation bills. In 1777, he was sent by the 
council (of state) with orders to Gen. Yfilliamson, at Keowee, 
South Carolina. He was appointed by Governor Alex. Martin 
(1777), with Brig. -Gen. John McDowell and Col. John Sevier, 
to treat with the Cherokee Indians. He was elected the first 
attorney general of North Carolina, in 1777, which he resigned 
on account of his health, and removed to Burke county in 
1781, which he represented for many years, and where he, en- 
jojing peace and plenty and the love and regard of his neigh- 
bors, died in 1821. He was at the time of his death the 
'patriarch of the North Carolina bar,' and an exemplary 
Christian, a pure patriot and an honest man." Such is the 
brief account given by the North Carolina historian, Wheeler, * 
of the man with whom Jackson fought the duel at Jonesboro, 
which shows that Avery was no ordinary man. 

Avery graduated from Princeton in 1766; Jackson was born 
March 15, 1767. Hence, Avery must have been at least twenty 
years older than Jackson. The records at Jonesboro show that 
Avery attended the various courts up to about the time Ten- 
nessee was admitted into the Union, and that he was on one or 
the other side of nearly all the cases in the courts held there. 

More than one version of the duel, and the cause of it, have 
been given. I have read and heard two of these. 

Parton, in his life of Jackson, t gives an account of this 
duel, as detailed by Col. Isaac T. Avery, son of Col. Waight- 
still Avery, and it would seem that this version of the affair 
ought to be accepted. It will be noticed, however, that Par- 
ton's account omits to state any fact or facts that caused or led 

* History of North Carolina, part ii, page 56. 
t Parton's Life of Jacksou, I, 162. 



112 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

up to the challenge — he merely states that the two attorneys 
were on opposing sides in a case at Jonesboro; that the cause 
was going rather against Jackson, that he became irritated, and 
that Avery rather exultingly ridiculed some legal position taken 
by Jackson, using language that was more sarcastic than was 
called for (as he afterwards admitted), which stung Jackson, 
who snatched up a pen, wrote a peremptory challenge on the 
blank leaf of a law book and delivered it then and there to 
Avery, by whom it was promptly accepted. 

In my search after the facts, made years ago, among the old 
men of Washington and Sullivan counties, I ascertained that 
Jackson fought two duels at Jonesboro. When I began my 
investigation, I had never heard of any except that with Col. 
Avery, and therefore, when asking some one about the matter, 
I would say something to this effect : ' ' What do you remember, 
or what have you heard, about Jackson's duel fought at Jones- 
boro? " The answer, four times out of five, would be: " Which 
one do you mean — the one with Avery, or the one fought in 
the hollow? " They nearly all remembered the fact that there 
were two duels, or said that they did ; they recollected all about 
the duel with Avery, and that it was fought on the hill on the 
south side of the town (not on the north side), and that the 
other one was fought in "the hollow" (as it was then called) 
north of the town; but they could not recall the name of the 
man with whom the latter duel was fought, nor the cause of it. 
I suggested to some of them that probably there was no duel 
fought with pistols in the meadow or hollow, but that it must 
have been a plain, old-fashioned fight with fists, as I had heard 
that the hollow in question was a favorite place for the fisticuff 
champions of the time to retire to and ' ' fight it out fair. " This 
suggestion was invariably met with ridicule at the mere idea of 
Andrew Jackson fighting with anything else than a pistol, a 



Jackson's Duel with Avery. 113 

dirk or a sword; and I gave up the duel iu the hollow with 
much regret at not being able to learn anything at all about it, 
beyond the fact that Jackson did fight one there, with some one 
whose name they could not remember, and the cause of which 
they had heard but could not recall. 

The account of the duel between Jackson and Avery, as given 
me and as I heard it given to others, twenty, twenty-five and as 
far back as thirty years ago, bj' very old native-born citizens, 
agrees in the following particulars with that given by others : Jack- 
son and Avery were opposing counsel in a suit being tried in the 
afternoon; the case was going apparently against Jackson's view 
and client; Jackson was exerting himself in an effort to escape 
from authorities relied on by Avery; and the latter did ridicule 
severely some legal position taken by his opponent. If, how- 
ever, the account given me be a true one, as I have every rea- 
son to believe that it is, there is much that must be interlined 
in or added to the foregoing, although it can be done briefly. 

Avery's favorite authority was " Bacon's Abridgment. " This 
he carried with him from court to court, and from the tavern 
to the court house and back. It was always in his ' ' green 
bag," and the latter, when not in his saddle-bags, was in his 
hand or swinging from his arm. The book was carefully 
wrapped up in a piece of buckskin, to preserve it from wear. 
Avery quoted from and referred to -'Bacon's Abridgment" in 
every case and on all occasions, and of course had done so on 
the trial of the case out of which grew the duel ; and Jackson 
had ridiculed Avery's pet authority, but had not said anything 
derogatory to his opponent as a lawyer or a gentleman. Averj', 
in his retort, grew sarcastic ; he not only criticised legal posi- 
tions taken by Jackson, but intimated pretty strongly that he 
did not know anything about the law of that case or of any 
other, and that he had much to learn before he would be justi- 



114 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

fied in criticising a law book written by anyone. This wa8 
enough to inflame Jackson, and it did. Jumping to his feet, 
he exclaimed : "I may not know as much law as there is in 
Bacon's Abridgment, but I know enough not to take illegal 
fees! " Avery at once turned on Jackson, and demanded fiercely 
to know whether he meant to chai'ge him with taking illegal 
fees. Jackson answered, " I do, sir," and started to say more; 
but Avery, pointing and shaking his finger at his adversary, 
hissed through his teeth, "It's as false as hell!" whereupon 
Jackson immediately sat down, picked up a law book, tore a 
blank leaf from it, wrote a challenge, delivered it to Avery, 
bowed to him ceremoniously, and walked out of the court house. 
Avery seated himself, wrote an acceptance of the challenge, 
walked out of the court house and, meeting John Adair, re- 
quested him to act as his second, and to deliver his note to 
Jackson. The latter, in the mean time, had met a friend, 
whom he asked to act as his second, and to whom he said that 
he did not wish to kill Avery; that Avery had interrupted him 
without hearing all that he had intended to say, which was that 
he (Avery) had taken illegal fees because of his ignorance of 
the latest law fixing a schedule of fees, * and not that he had 
done so corruptly ; but that Avery's manner and language were 
such as to prevent this intended explanation, which he could 
not afford to make afterward without the probability of being 
suspected of feai'ing Avery, and tliat he would rather be killed 
by his antagonist than suspected of cowardice. Jackson's sec- 
ond (whose name I was never able to ascertain) unquestionably 
communicated to Adair, during the subsequent negotiations 
between them as to weapons, etc. , the substance of what Jack- 
son had said; and the two seconds determined that there should 
be no duel in earnest, or " shooting to kill," as one of my in- 

♦Attorueys' fees were then fixej by statute, iu botli civil and criminal cases. 



Jackson's Duel with Avery. 115 

formants expressed it. This agreement must have been com- 
municated to both principals, before they left the town for the 
" field of honor," as subsequent events clearly indicate. 

Difficulties that led to a challenge and its acceptance, in the 
olden times, were rarely ever adjusted before the combatants 
arrived on the field. The distinguished duellists followed the 
custom on this occasion ; and, with their seconds and others 
who knew of the affair, went to the ground selected — the hill 
on the south side of Jonesboro, and not "the hollow" north of 
town. The distance was measured off, the principals stationed 
and the word given — and Jackson and Avery both fired in the 
air, to the great gratification of their friends. 

The two principals approached each other with extended 
hands. While holding his recent antagonist by the hand, 
Jackson said : "Col. Avery, I knew that, if I hit you and did 
not kill you immediately, the greatest comfort you could have 
in your last moments would be to have ' Bacon's Abridgment ' 
near you ; and so I had my friend bring it to the ground. " 
Thereupon, Jackson's second unrolled the package in his hand, 
which was about the size of a law book, and out fell a piece of 
old, well-cured bacon! 

Parton, in a note appended to his account of the duel, says 
that there was a comic incident connected with it, which Jack- 
son would not tell and Adair did not. The version here given 
was told me by three different old men, in Washington county, 
years ago. They were Abram Gregg, Micajah (or Michael) 
Hodges and John Fullmer, each of whom had been a soldier 
in the war of 1812, Gregg having been, I believe, a captain. 
The last time that I talked with Fullmer and Hodges on this 
subject was in 3 879, and they were both clear in their recol- 
lection, without any consultation with each other, residing in 



116 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

different parts of the county, Fullmer on the Watauga river 
and Hodges on the Holston, eight miles distant.* 

The foregoing version of this duel is supported by the old 
court records at Jonesboro. Years ago I read and copied 
therefrom the following entry : ' ' Waightsell Avery having for 
"want of Acts of Assembly Crept into an Error in Taking Two 
pounds instead of One pound Six Shillings and Eight pence 
Was by the Court freely Pardoned at his Own Request." It 
is also borne out by the fact that, when Jackson was President, 
this duel was mentioned to him by Samuel P. Carron, then a 
member of' Congress from the district in Nofth Carolina in 
which Col. Avery died, whereupon the President, according to 
Parton, asked Carron, "Who told you about it?" "Gen. 
Adair," was the answer. "Did he tell you what happened on 
the ground?" "No." "Well, then, I sha'n't," said Jack- 
son, laughing. This would indicate that the duel had had 
some comic ending, and not a comical beginning. 

The other version of the duel, which I never heard in upper 
East Tennessee, agrees with the one before given, except in the 
following particulars. It was said that, in the course of the 
trial, Jackson was rather getting the best of Avery, and as it 
was near adjourning time, and Col. Avery, strange to say, had 
forgotten his green bag with "Bacon's Abridgment" in it, 
when returning from dinner, he said to the court that he would 
produce next morning the authority in support of his position; 
that Bacon's Abridgment would show how little the opposing 
counsel knew about the law in the case, etc. Next morning, 
Jackson went into Avery's room dui'ing the latter's absence, 

*Hodges died in .Juue, 1881, at the age of eighty-six. Fullmer died in November, 
1883, ninety years old. Gregg was much older than either of tlie others, and died 
early in the seventies, a very old man. There were living in the Boon's creek civil 
district of Washington county, after the close of the late war, as many as seven old 
gentlemen who had been soldiers in the war of 1812, besides others then living in 
different parts of the county. 



Jackson's Duel with Avery. 117 

took the "Abridgment" out of the green bag, and substituted 
a piece of bacon about the size of the book, wrapped first in 
paper and then in the buckskin which Avery used as a wrapper 
for his precious volume. When Avery came into court with 
his green bag, and proceeded to produce his authority, out 
tumbled the piece of bacon, in the presence of the court and 
the law3'ers, as well as the spectators who had been invited to 
witness the fun. This practical joke so incensed Avery that 
he challenged Jackson on the spot ; the challenge was accepted, 
and the combatants immediately proceeded to the duelling 
ground, fired at each other, both missing, whereupon each ex- 
pressed himself satisfied, and the aflfair ended. This latter 
version does not accord with what Jackson said to Carron about 
the comic incident, when he asked if Adair had told him what 
happened on the ground — not at the court house or before the 
duel. 

I gathered from the old men alluded to above that public 
sentiment, as they understood, was rather with Avery at the 
time of the duel, as the people had more confidence in his law 
knowledge than that of "young Jackson;" but they all be- 
lieved both of them to be brave and honest, although Jackson 
was ' ' a little too fractious. " 

Did Jackson fight another duel at Jonesboro? I do not 
know; but it is certain that the three old gentlemen whom I 
have named, as well as others, asserted most positively that he 
did. When asked whom the duel was fought with, when it oc- 
curred, what caused it, etc., they could not remember; but 
they all agreed that the affair took place in the ' ' long meadow, " 
as it was then called (formerly the "hollow"), on the north 
side of town, and they all asserted that the duel with Avery 
was fought on the hill on the south side. Capt. Abram Gregg 
was of the opinion that the duel occurred in the year after 



118 Droppeb Stitches in Tennessee History. 

Jackson came to Jonesboro, which would fix it in 1789. He 
said that Jackson hit his man, but he was not seriously wounded, 
and soon recovered and left the community; that Jackson was 
not touched. It can be seen from this statement how the facts 
of the duel might have been forgotten, if it took place, as the 
other party to it left the country soon afterward, whereas Col. 
Avery continued to attend the courts of the county for years 
after his duel with Jackson. This would naturally keep the 
matter fresh in the minds of the people, although Jackson left 
the county permanently about October or November, 1790, 



CHAPTER IX. 

ANDREW JACKSON, DEPUTY SHERIFF AND FIREMAN. 

RUSSELL BEAN was not distinguished alone because he was 
the first white child born within the limits of what is to- 
day the state of Tennessee: he was said to have been the 
most perfect specimen of manhood in the whole country, with- 
out an equal for strength, activity and physical endurance, and 
absolutely devoid of fear. He was a genius, also: he was a 
gunsmith by trade, and it was said that he could make more 
implements of war and other things of utility, with fewer tools, 
than any other man ever known in that day and country. He 
went to Connecticut, soon after he reached manhood, and 
brought back with him to the western world a supply of what 
were then modern tools and supplies, with which he established 
a kind of manufactory of arms, etc. 

Bean had a flat-bottomed boat built under his directions, and 
with a cargo of arms of his manufacture, consisting of rifles, 
pistols, dirks, etc. , he went alone down the Nolichucky to the 
Tennessee, thence to the Ohio, and down the Mississippi to New 
Orleans, where he remained for about two years, engaged in foot 
races, horse racing, cock-fighting and other sports of the times 
in that then great city. On returning to Jonesboro, he found 
his wife — who was a daughter of Col. Charles Roberson, and 
had borne him several children — nursing an infant. Her 
seducer, it was said, was a merchant of the town named Allen. 
Bean left the house without a word, got drunk, came back, 
took the baby out of the cradle, and deliberately cut off both 
its ears close up to its head, saying that he ' ' had marked it 
so that it would not get mixed up with his children." He was 



120 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

arrested and, court being in session, he was tried and convicted 
of this act of inhuman cruelty, and sentenced, in addition to 
other punishment, to be branded in the palm of the hand. 
This was done ; whereupon he immediately bit out of his hand 
the part containing the brand, and spat it upon the ground. 
He was also imprisoned, but soon escaped from jail, and was 
allowed to remain at large, for the reason that the officers were 
afraid of him. His wife soon got a divorce from him; but he 
was determined to kill Allen, and it was known that on several 
occasions he had secretly watched for him. Failing to get a 
chance at Allen, who was really in hiding, Bean sought a diflS- 
culty with Allen's brother, whom he assaulted and beat unmer- 
cifully. For this he was indicted; but, up to the time that 
court met with Jackson on the bench, the officers had not been 
able to arrest him, or at all events they had not arrested him. 
They reported to Judge Jackson that they could not take Bean ; 
that he was out at his cabin, on the south side of the town, 
armed, sitting constantly, when at home, in the door, with his 
rifle by his side and his pistols in his lap, defying arrest and 
threatening to kill the first man who approached his house. 
Such was the report made in open court to Judge Jackson, who 
immediately ordered: "Summon every man in the court house, 
and bring Bean in here dead or alive." Thereupon the sheriflf, 
with a grim humor which does him infinite credit, responded, 
"Then I summon your honor first ! " Jackson at once left the 
bench, exclaiming, "By the Eternal, I'll bring him !" — and he 
did. He found Bean sitting in his door, as described by the 
officers. Jackson approached, pistol in hand, followed by the 
crowd at a respectful distance. When he got within shooting 
distance. Bean arose, called out, "I'll surrender to you, Mr. 
Devil ! " and laid down his arms. Jackson took him to the 
court room, where he was tried and fined heavily. 



Andrew Jackson, Deputy Sheriff and Fireman. 121 

This is the story of the Bean incident, as always told by the 
old people in Washington county. Russell Bean was a man 
of fine appearance and engaging manners. He was not only a 
genius, but he was "well read" for that era, and had picked up, 
on his trip to Connecticut and at New Orleans, a great deal of 
information with reference to other nations and their affairs. 
He could have been a leader, but for some infirmities and 
peculiarities. 

When Parton was preparing his life of Jackson, some one 
gave him the information that Col. Charles E-oberson, Bean's 
father-in-law, was "an illiterate old man, who had fought 
under Sevier at King's Mountain and made campaigns against 
the Indians. " This statement, unqualified, does Col. Roberson 
injustice. He was one of the heroes of King's Mountain, and 
had engaged in many campaigns against the Indians. He was 
not an educated man, but the various responsible positions to 
which he was appointed, including that of chairman of the 
Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, according to early records 
at Jonesboro, and speaker ©f the Senate in the last General 
Assembly of the State of Franklin, 1787, testify to his intelli- 
gence, as well as the esteem and confidence in which he was 
held by his countrymen. 

Bean's divorced wife married again, and moved to Knoxville, 
where the unfortunate child died, as did also her second hus- 
band. In the course of a few years, Bean himself drifted to 
Knoxville, where Jackson met him and, it is said, brought 
about a reconciliation between him and his former wife. They 
were remarried, and lived happily until the death of Bean. 

Parton fixes the date of the fire incident at Jonesboro at the 
time of the Bean incident — after Jackson had been appointed 
judge. The date is not material, but Parton's information 
must have been incorrect, or the date of the fire incident, as 



122 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

recollected and given by aged persons who remembered it and 
recounted it as late as twenty years ago, was wrong. Accord- 
ing to these old citizens, the fire in which Jackson distinguished 
himself was in 1798, while he was stopping in Jonesboro 
on his way to Nashville from Philadelphia, after he had re- 
signed the position of United States Senator. Court was in 
session, however, when the fire occurred, as stated by Parton, 
and Jackson was there mingling with his friends. He had 
been there for a few days previous to the fire, and continued 
his stay in town for a few days afterward. He was not stop- 
ping at the tavern, but was the guest of one of the families. 

The fire originated, near midnight, in the stable that be- 
longed to and was near the Rawlings tavern. It was soon in a 
blaze throughout, and there was no thought of an effort to save 
it, as it was filled with hay, oats, fodder, etc. Attention was 
turned to the tavern, which stood some two hundred and fifty 
feet from a creek which runs through the center of the town. 
The alarm of fire and the call for help brought out the entire 
population, filling the few streets of the village with men, 
women and children. When Jackson appeared on the scene, 
Ben Boyd, an Irish coppersmith, was calling loudly for buckets 
and yelling to the crowd to form a line to the creek ; but nobody 
was paying any attention to him. Jackson, as was his custom, 
immediately took command, and began ordering everybody to 
get into line, actually taking hold of men and women and put- 
ting them in position, calling for buckets, and directing the 
keeper of the tavern to get all of the blankets in the house and 
spread them all over the roof. In a few minutes Jackson had 
formed two lines from the house to the creek, the lines facing 
each other and six or eight feet apart; along one line empty 
buckets were passed to the creek, and the full buckets back up 
the other line to the tavern, which was the only house in imme- 



Andrew Jackson, Deputy Sheriff and Fireman. 123 

diate danger. Jackson would appear, one moment, on the 
roof, calling down to those in the lines to stand firm and hurry 
up the water, and the tavern and town would be saved ; the next 
seen of him, he would be passing up and down the lines, urging 
order and discipline. He was everywhere, and always at the 
place where his presence seemed most needed. The tavern was 
saved, and nothing burned but the stable. "Jackson saved 
the town with his bucket brigade," was on every lip. 

Parton brings Benjamin Boyd to the attention of the nation, 
in connection with this fire incident, by saying that, "while 
Gen. Jackson was strengthening that part of his line near the 
creek, a drunken coppersmith named Boyd, who said that he 
had seen fires at Baltimore, began to give orders and annoy 
persons in the line. Jackson shouted at Boyd to fall in line, 
who continued jabbering. Jackson seized a bucket by the 
handle, knocked him down, and walked along the line giving 
orders as coolly as before." Ben Boyd's part in and connec- 
tion with the fire incident, as detailed to me " often and again" 
by persons who knew all the facts, does not agree with Parton's 
account in some particulars. What is believed to be the true 
narrative is here given. 

Benjamin Boyd was an Irishman, as was Andrew Jackson. 
He was a coppersmith by trade, got drunk occasionally, and 
was drunk on the night of the fire. He was somewhat cha- 
grined at the idea of Jackson appropriating his suggestion of 
a bucket-line to the creek; and after Jackson had succeeded 
in doing what he could not do, and, as Boyd said, was ' ' strut- 
ting around giving orders, " the two men met near the creek. 
Boyd said to Jackson, ' ' I have seen and fought fires in Phila- 
delphia before you were born," and continued to growl at 
Jackson, who ordered him to ' ' get in line or get out of the 
way." Boyd, who was a fearless man, made some insolent 



124 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee Histop.y. 

reply, when Jackson, seizing a bucket of water, threw its con- 
tents on the irate Irishman, and passed along the line, leaving 
Boyd swearing, "By the Holy Virgin, I'll whip you before 
you leave this town!" John Chester, with whom Boyd lived 
and died at Jonesboro, made him go to his little house, which 
stood in the corner of Chester's 3"ard; and this ended the 
matter. * 

"Jackson's bucket brigade" has often saved property in the 
ancient town, within the century, now almost rounded out, 
that followed its organization and first service. 

* My greatgrandfather, Robert Johnston Chester, brought Benjamin Boyd from 

Limerick, Ireland, to America. My grandfather, John Chester, brought him from 
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to Jonesboro, in December, 1796. Boyd Avas then an old 
man. I am the possessor of one of Boyd's books, an "Arithmetick," "printed in 
Belfast, Ireland, by James Magee, at the Bible and Crown, Bridge street," in 1775. 



CHAPTER X. 

ANDREW JACKSON, THE MAN. 

ANDREW JACKSON was a more courageous man, as well 
as a much greater man, than many of his most ardent 
admirers knew of. At the time of his duel with Avery, 
if the version which I believe to be true is correct, he 
was afraid of public opinion — that is, he believed that, if he 
made an explanation, somebody might think that he feared 
Avery, and so, rather than run the risk of being suspected of 
cowardice, he was willing to give Avery a chance to kill him. 
But later in life he had outgrown this, and had no master ex- 
cept his convictions of duty, his own sense of right and wrong. 
He did not care what anybody might believe or suspect him of, 
so long as his course had the approval of his judgment and his 
conscience. 

This was established bej'ond doubt, in the minds of a few 
old gentlemen (who afterward learned the actual facts), b}' an 
incident which happened in 1832 — probably in the early part 
of October — at the public house or tavern kept by Capt. Bell 
at Bean's Station, in Grainger county. President Jackson had 
left Washington, in the early part of August, 1832, in company 
with Francis P. Blair and others, to visit the Hermitage ; and 
the incident about to be related occurred on the retui-n trip to 
Washington. Before leaving the Hermitage, the itinerary or 
schedule of travel and stopping-places on the route had been 
made out. Bell's tavern had been fixed upon as a point for 
dinner and rest, and Capt. Bell had been notified of the date. 
Bell had been a friend and admirer of Jackson for many years, 



126 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

and he and his wife naturally made great preparations to re- 
ceive and entertain the President and his accompanying friends. 
Quite a number of leading citizens, acquaintances and adher- 
ents of Jackson, who had been apprised of the day he would 
arrive, were on hand to greet their old friend and leader, the 
President of the United States. 

The party arrived on time, and the President's carriage 
stopped in the public road in front of the tavern, which stood 
at some little distance back from the highway. Capt. Bell 
and others were at the carriage door to receive President Jack- 
son, who got out immediately and ' ' shook hands all round. " 
Bell, however, observed that Jackson, with an ominous storm- 
cloud gathering on his face, was looking intently toward a 
broad porch which extended along the front of the tavern, his 
eyes evidently fixed upon a gentleman who was walking back 
and forth on this porch, and who was evidently in turn eyeing 
Jackson with equal intensity. Suddenly, Jackson turned to- 
ward the conversances which were accompanying him with 
friends, some of whom had already gotten out, and said, 
"Don't get out — we will not take dinner here. " Then, turn- 
ing to Capt. Bell, he said, "I regret that I can't stop, rest 
awhile and take dinner with you. Tell Mrs. Bell that I could 
not stop." The latter remark was made in an undertone to 
Capt. Bell, after which President Jackson got into his carriage 
and ordered his driver to go on, and his friends followed. 

Capt. Bell's curiosity was as great as his disappointment at 
the turn things had taken. He did not know what had caused 
it, but suspected that the presence of the gentleman walking 
on the porch had something, if not everything, to do with it. 
This gentleman had only stopped for dinner, and left immedi- 
ately after it was over, without alluding to the Jackson inci- 
dent. Indeed, no one then knew whether or not he knew who 



Andrew Jackson, the Man. 127 

Jackson was; but Capt. Bell, during the hour or so that he 
remained, learned what afterward proved to be three important 
facts — the name of the gentleman, that he was from North 
Carolina, and that he was on his wa}' to Kentucky. At that 
time, the thoroughfare from all East Tennessee, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina and Georgia was by way of Bean's Station 
through Cumberland Gap to Kentucky. 

Some months later, Capt. Bell learned that the gentleman 
in question was one of President Jackson's most bitter and un- 
relenting enemies ; that he was in fact the leader of the oppo- 
sition to Jackson in North Carolina; that he had made public 
speeches in North Carolina and elsewhere against him, in the 
campaigns of 1824 and 1828, and was then (1832) most active 
in his opposition ; and that he was at that time probably on his 
way to Kentucky to consult with Jackson's opponents in that 
state. He, as Bell afterwards learned, had rehashed in his 
public speeches all the slanders which had been invented against 
Jackson, including no doubt the one which had cost Dickinson 
his life in 1806. After learning these facts, Capt. Bell said 
that he well knew the terrific struggle which Jackson had then 
and there, to control the storm rising within his breast as he 
saw, within a few yards of him, a hated foe who had commit- 
ted a crime which, in Jackson's judgment, ought to bar him 
out of heaven. But Bell's idea was that Jackson — the man 
with a temper like a tornado, and whose very nature, as some 
professed to believe, was nothing but a raging torrent of fury — 
said to himself, ' ' I am President of the United States ; and I 
can not afford to bring i-eproach upon the people who elected 
me, or to degrade the highest office on earth by a scene, or a 
difficulty with that man, which is certain to follow if I stop 
here "; and he therefore immediately got into his carriage, and 
left without any explanation except the words given above. 



128 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

When Capt. Bell met Jackson again, a few years afterward, 
no explanation was necessary — he knew all. 

Capt. Bell's son, who as a 3'oung man was present when the 
incident occurred, is authority for the account given above, 
and for his father's views and recollections of it. So far as I 
know, it has not been published hitherto. 

Those who knew Andrew Jackson would agree with Bell 
that it took a superhuman effort even to remember, at the mo- 
ment, that he was President of the United States, and to con- 
trol the passion that the sight of this man aroused in him ; but 
he did it, and, in doing it, proved himself a greater man, if 
possible, than many of his friends ever believed him to be. 
The struggle that the President of the United States had with 
Andrew Jackson, on this occasion, can better be understood 
when it is remembered that the man walking on the porch had 
repeated statements which, it is said, was the origin of Jack- 
son's trouble with Sevier and others, and which also caused 
Jackson, in his duel with Dickinson, after the latter had fired 
and hit him, to place his left hand tightly on the spot where 
the ball had entered, take deliberate aim with the other hand 
and pull the trigger; and then, when the weapon failed to lire, 
the hammer having caught at the half-cock notch, to examine 
it carefully, recock it, aim carefully again, and fire again — this 
time to see his enemy fall mortally wounded, dying in a few 
moments afterward. Jackson's act at Beau's Station, in leav- 
ing abruptly the presence of a calumniator of the memory of 
the wife whom he had worshipped in life, and at the very men- 
tion of whose name after her death tears came into his eyes 
and a tremor in his voice, was an exhibition of courage and 
self-control showing greatness in a direction and to a degree 
not often met with in the very greatest of great men. 

On this same journey from Washington to the Hermitage, in 



Andrew Jackson, the Man. 129 

1832, President Jackson was given an ovation and reception 
which, it is believed, was the most pleasing and gratifying to 
him of any of the numerous public demonstrations of popular 
esteem theretofore shown him. This affair had its beginning 
four miles northeast of Jonesboro, on the public highway — the 
old state road — on each side of which, at the point mentioned, 
was an old-fashioned crooked rail fence, and also large oak and 
other native forest trees. It was in the latter part of August, or 
early in September, and the day was an ideal one. The road 
was on and along the top of a high ridge, with the Iron Mount- 
ain in plain view across the valley to the south. At this point, 
the President was met by one hundred picked men, uniformed, 
and mounted on a hundred of the very finest dapple-grey sad- 
dle horses that could be found in the country, to escort him 
into Jonesboro. This column of horsemen was under com- 
mand of Samuel Greer, a life-long friend of Jackson. As it 
approached the carriage of the President, who had had no inti- 
mation of its approach, and got within about a hundred feet, a 
hundred stentorian voices simultaneously shouted : ' ' Three 
cheers for Andrew Jackson, the greatest man on earth!" and 
the cheers which followed made the welkin ring and woke the 
echoes of three commonwealths. 

The carriage was pulled to the right of the road, under the 
shade of a large oak (which was still standing as late as 1884), 
and the President alighted, removing his hat as he did so, and 
bowing three several times to the horsemen. This act of 
course caused another burst of applause. When quiet was 
restored, the column, at the command of Greer, dismounted 
and passed to the rear, where he introduced each one to the 
President. It is said that the latter, in as many as forty or 
more instances, while holding some young man by the hand, 
would tell him who his mother was before her marriage, what 



130 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

his father's given name was, and in what part of the county he 
had lived — whether on Watauga, Nolichucky or Holston river, 
or on Limestone, Cherokee, Boon's, Brush or Knob creek. 
After this, Jackson turned in the direction of the Iron Mount- 
ain, and as he pointed to it, said in substance : ' ' Forty-four 
years ago last spring, I crossed that mountain, and settled, as 
I then thought, in this country permanently, amongst your 
fathers and ancestors; but Providence had decreed that I 
should not spend my life in this particular part of our great 
state, and took me elsewhere. Eveiy time, for the last few 
days, that my carriage has been where I could see that mount- 
ain, I have been looking out at it, and letting my mind run 
back over my stormy and eventful life; and, at the moment 
you approached and gave me the first notice I had of your 
coming by your cheers and applause, I was thinking of whom 
I would meet and whom I would miss of my old friends at the 
old town just ahead of us, where I began life. I wish to say, 
before we resume the journey to the town, that in all my career 
I have not been the recipient of a demonstration more greatly 
appreciated than this one, here under the old trees, in this old 
road that I used to travel so often, by the sons of my old 
friends and acquaintances." Then, with Greer and ten of the 
escort some little distance in front of the carriage, and ninety 
in the rear, the journey was resumed. It was understood 
throughout the country that Jackson would arrive in Jonesboro 
that afternoon, and also that he would spend the next day in 
the old town. This had brought thousands of people to Jones- 
boro; men, women and children came, on foot, on horseback 
and in every kind of vehicle. There was no way to house and 
feed the multitude that had arrived and filled the town when 
Jackson reached it late in the afternoon. The sides of the 
road were lined with people for a mile outside the town, the 




#i,i^'*H 



Andrew Jackson, the Man. 131 

streets were packed, the tops of many of the houses were cov- 
ered, and the President was received with waving of hats, bon- 
nets, aprons, handkerchiefs and improvised flags and with 
shouts from the multitude, from the time he came in sight 
until he got out of his carriage and went into the hotel. 

The hotel at which he stopped was on the main street, and 
had a broad porch that extended the full length of the house. 
This was about eight or ten feet high, projecting out over the 
sidewalk, and was reached by a stairway at each end. On the 
following day, the President held a reception on this porch, 
and there shook hands with all of the people who had assem- 
bled to see him, they passing up at one end of the porch and 
down at the other. On this porch, on this day, was dispelled 
from the minds of some of his friends every vestige of the 
slight suspicion which had been produced by vile hired slander- 
ers, that his fierce nature, turbulent spirit and stormy life had 
sapped his mental powers, judgment and reason, and that he 
was no longer the real Andrew Jackson of New Orleans, but 
was surrounded and controlled by designing, unscrupulous 
scoundrels, who were feeding the vanity of the old man in his 
dotage on flattery which he was then unable to detect and re- 
sist. President Jackson stood on the hotel porch at Jones- 
boro, and, possibly at the very moment when public speakers 
and editors in other parts of the country were lamenting(?) 
the loss of his former "energy of character" and the decay of 
his mind and judgment, gave to those people the very highest 
evidence that he was the Andrew Jackson of old: his form, 
although he was sixty-five years old, was ' ' straight as a gun- 
barrel," and his eyes as flashing and his mind as clear as on 
the night of the fire, or on the day when he left the bench and 
arrested Russell Bean, in that very town. As his old friends 
would approach him in their plain and simple garb, with their 



i 



132 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

wives and children, * lie would call out their names, grasp their 
hands, put an arm around them, kiss their daughters, compli- 
ment their younger children, and tell the wife that the good- 
looking boys and girls "favored her" more than they did the 
father. Incidents of his early life would suggest themselves 
to his mind — a lawsuit, a fox chase, a deer drive or something 
else — as they came up, and he would refer to it in some way, 
in the few moments which he could spare to that particular in- 
dividual. His famous horse-race with Col. Love in Greasy 
Cove was mentioned ; and it came very near bringing down the 
porch when a kinsman of Col. Love, by the same name, grasped 
the old hero by the hand and asked him if he had any better 
race horses at the Hermitage than he had when he lived in that 
country ; to which he promptly and laughingly replied : ' ' Yes, 
better than either one of us had that day; come over to the 
Hermitage, and you shall have one." Such were the scenes 
and incidents of that memorable day on the hotel porch in the 
historic old town of Jonesboro. t 

Th'e "bank conspirators," as they were called, had been at 
work incessantly, and they had a few — a very few — helpers in 
that country, who had been furnished with and had repeated 

* During the progress oT this reception, on the porch of the old Chester Hotel, a 
lady — an old friend and admirer of Jackson — came up to him, and after a cordial 
greeting, she presented her little son and namesake of the President. President 
Jackson was so impressed with the manner and appearance of the little fellow, that 
he gave him a " five-dollar gold piece." This little fellow grew up to manhood, be- 
came a teacher and then a lawyer. During the late war he was Lieutenant Colonel 
of the 8th Tennessee Federal Cavalry; then a State Senator some years ago from the 
first district; then Circuit Judge of the First judicial circuit, which position he held 
for eight years; now resides at Greeneville, Tenn.,an honored and respected lawyer, 
citizen and gentleman, and still has the five-dollar gold piece — Hon. Andrew Jack- 
son Brown. 

tMy mother, whose maiden name was Mary M. Chester, married for her first 
husband Richard Gammon, Jr., and they resided at Blountville, Sullivan county, 
where Jackson was their guest on this trip from Washington, for the night preced- 
ing his arrival at Jonesboro. Mr. Gammon and my mother accompanied the Presi- 
dent from Blountville to Jonesboro, where my mother was born and reared, and she 
was present on the hotel porch during this reception. 



Andrew Jackson, the Man. 13ii 

(with great regret?) this charge of imbecility of old age, which 
rendered it dangerous to the liberties of the people and peril- 
ous to the government to re-elect the once great man, then a 
mental wrecli. It may, even at this late day, be of benefit to 
reproduce in part an editorial from one of the newspapers of 
the period — a strong and powerful one — which, it was said, 
had been hired to desert and slander President Jackson, and 
to wait until he was in the midst of his journey througli the 
country to the Hermitage, before it made its first assault on 
him. This editorial, among other things, said: 

Since 1823 I have been the firm, undeviating friend of An- 
drew Jackson, through good and through evil report. I have 
defended his reputation and advocated his cause; and. for the 
last five years, my exertions in his behalf, as the conductor of 
a public journal, have been known to this country. But the 
time has now arrived when I owe it to the people, to the insti- 
tutions of the country and to myself to declare my deliberate 
conviction that he has not realized the high hopes which his 
reputation and previously written and declared opinions prom- 
ised, nor I'edeemed the sacred pledges which he voluntarily 
gave on his election to the first station in the world. Let us 
not be misunderstood: I do not — I never will — impeach his 
patriotism or his integrity; but as a sentinel at my post, true 
to the duty which I voluntarily assumed when I became the 
editor of a public journal, I feel called upon to proclaim to the 
people that Andrew Jackson is not their President; that, en- 
feebled by age and the toils, cares and anxieties of an active 
and laborious life, he no longer possesses his former energy of 
character or independence of mind, but. confiding in those who 
have wormed themselves into his confidence, he has entrusted 
the afl'airs of this great nation and the happiness of thirteen 
millions of freemen to the hands of political gamblers and 
money-changers, time-serving politicians, who, in the pursuit 
of their unhallowed purposes, threaten ruin to the country and 
to that sacred charter of our liberties which was maintained by 
the wisdom of our fathers, after having been purchased with 
their blood and the sacrifice of every selfish motive on the altar 
of public good. * 

*New York Courier and Enquirer, quoli-d by P;irton, III, 428. 



134 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

The foregoing is from a three-columu editorial whicli ap- 
peared during the very week that Jackson was in Jonesboro, 
and only about two days previous to his reception in that town. 
Eight newspapers that had theretofore supported Jackson im- 
mediately followed the lead of the Courier and Enquirer^ took 
the names of Jackson and Van Buren from their mast-heads, 
and went over to the support of Nicholas Biddle and the banks, 
on the ground that the President had lost his mind and his 
"former energy of character"; but they all lived long enough 
to find out how the people of Jonesboro received the .slander,* 
and also to learn that the whole country knew that they had 
been hired to traduce the life, character, abilities and public 
services of this great soldier, statesman and patriot, and to 
have the finger of indignant, honest scorn point them out as 
traitors to the cause and slanderers of Andrew Jackson. 

Space has been given to this reception at Jonesboro for the 
reason that it took place during the period of ten days within 
which nine or ten of the newspapers in the east which had been 
supporting Jackson suddenl}' discovered that he had ' ' lost his 
former energy of character and independence of mind," and 
was so " enfeebled by age " that his re-election would endanger 
the happiness of the people and the ' ' sacred charter of liberty. " 
This was nothing more nor less than the first move in the con- 
spiracy that was formed to defeat his re-election and destroy 
him. These newspapers had been bought, the price paid and 
the trade closed, some time after Jackson's nomination on the 
21st of May preceding, at Baltimore; but they were instructed 
to reserve their opening fire upon him until an opportune time. 
It was ascertained that he was about to visit the Hermitage, 
and that he was going "overland" down across Virginia and 

*Tlie Courier and Enquirer which contained this editorial, reaching Jonesboro 
a few days after J;icl<son's reception, was torn in pieces, trampled and burned in 
the street. 



Andrew Jackson, the Man. 135 

on through Tennessee. When he was about midway on this 
journe}', with no telegraph or fast mail communication to give 
him information, these " bushwhackers " fired on his character, 
his integrity and his administration, and yet protested in the 
same editorials that they did not intend to ' ' impeach his pa- 
triotism or his integrity." 

The cold-blooded, savage brutality of this conspiracy; its 
''lying in wait," concealment in ambush for weeks, to catch 
the victim away from home, out in the interior on a long jour- 
ney, and then assault and attempt to assassinate his character, 
is without parallel in American political warfare. But the 
people could not be bought, deceived, driven nor intimidated. 
Of the popular vote cast in the election, that year, Jackson 
received 687, 502, and Clay 530,189. Jackson carried seven- 
teen out of twenty-four states, and received 219 out of 288 
electoral votes. 

If the men who became the tools of this conspiracy to ruin 
his usefulness, and to cloud his former fair name and fame, 
had any sensibilities left, what must have been the depth of 
their humiliation when, in June, 1833, Andrew Jackson, then 
President of the United States for a second term, and sixty- 
six years of age, rode on horseback along Broadway in the city 
of New York. Parton describes it in a few words: 

And what a scene was that, when the Old Man, victorious 
over nullification, and about to deal his finishing blow at the 
bank, visited New York, and was borne along Broadway on 
one roaring wave of upturned faces and flashing eyes; when it 
seemed, said a spectator, as if he had but to speak the word, 
and they would have pi'oclaimed him on the spot a king. * 

This ovation in New York was after he had been elected; 
the other mentioned was before he was elected, and was given 

* Life, preface. 



136 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

to the man, in a country road, between crooked rail fences, 
under the shade of the native oaks. 

President Jackson, during his second term, carried out his 
"previously written and declared opinions and promises," and 
''redeemed the sacred pledges which he voluntarily gave," by 
crushing the United States Banks and freeing the people, com- 
merce and trade from their domination, bringing shame and 
disgrace upon the conspirators and the hired traducers of this 
great man, whose name and fame will not perish until the de- 
parted spirit of American Independence shall shake hands with 
the ghost of Liberty across the grave of the greatest republic 
that has ever existed. 



^^ F» F» e:; ]S[ ID I ix: . 



A CENTENNIAL DREAM, 



BY DR. R. L. C. WHITE. 



(Nashville American, March 7. 1897.) 

HAVING spent an afternoon in wandering about the Centen- 
nial grounds, I had devoted the evening to Haywood, 
Ramsey and other chroniclers of early Tennessee history. 
These two circumstances combined were doubtless the cause of 
a singular dream which I had that night. I thought that I 
stood in the Auditorium, and saw congregated within its walls 
many of the famous men and women of the past whose names 
are closely interwoven with the history of our state. They 
seemed to constitute a convention of some kind ; and, although 
the assemblage had not yet been called to order, the chair had 
already been taken, very appropriately, by the illustrious patriot 
whom Andrew Jackson styled "the Father of Tennessee" (1), 
while the publisher of the first newspaper issued in the state 
(2) acted as secretary, assisted by the first native historian of 
Tennessee (3), the founder of the first "campaign paper" 
established west of the Alleghanies (4), and the editor of the 
first abolition paper issued in the south (5). 

Seated upon the platform were several persons who seemed 
to have been designated as vice presidents of the meeting. There 
were the statesman who defeated another eminent Tennessean 
for speaker of the national House of Representatives, and was 
in turn defeated by him (6) ; the only two United States Senators 



138 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

from Tennessee who were ever expelled (7, 8); the only Con- 
federate States Senators from Tennessee (9, 10); the man of 
whom an ex-President of the United States said that he was 
<'the greatest natural orator in Congress" (11); the United 
States Senator who published the first map of Tennessee (12); 
"Old Bullion" (13); and the patriot who, on resigning his 
seat in the Senate because he could not conscientiously obey 
the Instructions of the legislature, said: "For myself, I am 
proud that my state can, in my person, yet produce one man 
willing to be made a sacrifice rather than sacrifice his prin- 
ciples" (14). 

An interesting quartet, near the stage, consisted of the mem- 
ber of the first constitutional convention who proposed the 
name "Tennessee" for the infant commonwealth (15); the 
eminent statesman who said of the first constitution of Ten- 
nessee that it was "the least imperfect and most republican " 
of any which had been adopted up to that time (16); and the 
presidents respectively of the second and third constitutional 
conventions (17, 18). 

Seated together, a little farther back, were the two men who 
signed the act ceding "the territory south of the Ohio" to the 
United States (19, 20) ; the Virginia statesman in whose honor, 
at the suggestion of Andrew Jackson, a county was named, in 
recognition of his earnest advocacy of the admission of Ten- 
nessee to the Union (21); the man who gave in the Senate the 
casting vote which secured that admission (22) ; and the com- 
missioner who was sent by the Confederate government to efliect 
the withdrawal of Tennessee from the Union (23). 

Chatting pleasantly together, in one corner of the hall, was 
a notable group of women, comprising the wife of whom her 
husband left the record that she was ' ' a being so gentle and yet 
so virtuous, slander might wound, but could not dishonor" (24) ; 



Appendix. 139 

the only female for whom a Tennessee countj'^ has ever been 
named (25); the pioneer maiden whoj in endeavoring to escape 
from Indians, fell into the arms of the soldier who afterwards 
became her husband (26); and the beautiful Irish girl who was 
the cause of the disruption of a President's cabinet (27) ; while 
near them '-the Pocahontas of the West" (28) stood silently 
listening. 

A remarkable group was composed of the famous general 
whose name was bestowed on the largest area ever embraced 
within the limits of a single county (29); a nobleman whose 
ancestral name, in abbreviated form, is borne by a Tennessee 
county (30); the explorer who named the Cumberland mount- 
ains and river (31); the governor b}' whose misspelled name a 
large part of Tennessee was known for many years (32) ; the 
revolutionary soldier in whose honor the first settlement on the 
Cumberland was called (33) ; and the famous explorer whose 
mysterious death, within the limits of the county which now 
bears his name, has never been satisfactorily explained (34). 

A picturesque trio consisted of the leader of the first body 
of white men who ever set foot on the soil of Tennessee (35) ; 
the first white man who erected an edifice within its limits (36) ; 
and the nobleman whose titular name was given to the first 
structure built therein by English-speaking people (37). 

Grouped modestly in the rear of the hall were several men 
whose dress and accoutrements proclaimed them pioneei's. 
There were the famous "big-foot hunter" who lived in a hol- 
low tree (38); the man whom the Indians called the "fool 
warrior" on account of his reckless bravery (39); the com- 
mander of a marvellous expedition bj' water, of which it has 
been said that " it has no parallel in modern history" (40); the 
man for whom the oldest town in the state was named (41); 
the first white child born in Tennessee (42); the first white 



140 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

child born in Nashville (43) ; and the bridegroom of the first 
marriage ceremony performed west of the Cumberland mount- 
ains (44). 

Just beyond these, leaning on their Deckhard rifles, stood 
three men who would have attracted attention anywhere — the 
celebrated backwoodsman who left an engraved record to desig- 
nate the spot where he had ' ' cilled a bar " (45) ; another, equally 
famous, who relates in his autobiography that he killed one 
hundred and five bears in less than a year (46) ; and still an- 
other who shot thirty-two of these "varmints" during one 
winter within seven miles of Nashville (47). 

I was much interested in the appearance of a number of in- 
telligent-looking men who sat together, engaged in earnest con- 
versation. There were the man who founded the first educational 
institution in the Mississippi valley (48) ; the first minister who 
preached regularly to a Tennessee congregation (i9) ; the bishop 
whose journal forms a valuable contribution to the history of 
early times in this state (50) ; the president of the first nou- 
sectarian college chartered in the United States (51); the class- 
mate of Daniel "Webster who founded the first academy for fe- 
males in Tennessee (52) ; and the eminent educator who declined 
successively the presidency of seven universities and colleges 
in other states, in order that he might continue his chosen work 
in this (53). 

Immediately in rear of these were the illustrious savant 
who first mapped the Gulf Stream, and demonstrated the fea- 
sibility of a submarine cable (54); the first state geologist of 
Tennessee (55) ; a distinguished surgeon who served profession- 
ally in the armies of three countries (56); and the young phy- 
sician who, while perishing in a snow-storm on Mont Blanc, 
kept a record of his sensations for the benefit of science (57). 

Just across the aisle sat the first chief justice of Tennessee 



Appendix. 141 

(58); the judge who, after having been chief justice of Ken- 
tucky, removed to this state and became the greatest criminal 
advocate in the history of its bar (59); the first judge who was 
ever impeached in Tennessee (60); the eminent jurist who 
wrote President Jackson's farewell address (61); and the judge 
whose singular death from the attack of an infuriated turkey- 
gobbler was regarded by the early settlers as retributive justice 
for oflScial oppression (62). 

A literary group was composed of ' • the father of Tennessee 
history" (63); the famous printer whose name a short-lived 
commonwealth once bore (64) ; the English author who founded 
a colony in this state which was named for the scene of his 
best- known book (65) ; a Tennessee editor who was afterward 
elected to a seat in the British parliament (66) ; the author of 
"Hymns to the Gods" (67); and "Sut Lovengood" (68). 

In a prominent position in the center of the hall were a man 
who was governor of two states of the Union (69) ; a governor 
of Tennessee who was buried in two states (70) ; the first man 
who became governor by virtue of his position as speaker of 
the Senate (71) ; one who was elected governor, but never 
inaugurated (72) ; a governor who was presented by a grand 
jury as a public nuisance (73) ; one to whom a celebrated 
author referred as having given to his official station ' ' the ill- 
savor of a corner grocery " (74) ; the only person present at the 
death of Henry Clay except the members of his immediate 
household (75); the editor famous as "the fighting parson" 
(76) ; and the man who, by casting the entire vote of the state 
at a national convention, although he was merely a chance by- 
stander, gave a new word to Tennessee politics (77). 

A distinguished looking body was composed of the revolu- 
tionary general to whom 25,000 acres of land in Tennessee 
were granted by legislative enactment (78) ; a famous fighter 



142 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

under Jackson who was said to have been "a great general 
without knowing it " (79) ; a naval officer who was master of a 
vessel at twelve years of age, and whom one of the best-known 
of American poets has styled 

" The sea-king of the sovereign west 
Who made his mast a throne " (80) ; 

the Tennessee postmaster to whom Andrew Jackson bequeathed 
a sword (81); the colonel of the famous "Bloody First" (82); 
and the "grey-eyed man of destiny" (83). 

Elsewhere were to be seen the man who supplied the funds 
which equipped John Sevier for King's Mountain (84) ; the man 
who furnished Jackson all the cannon-balls used by him at New 
Orleans (85) ; the first man who coined silver money in Ten- 
nessee (86) ; the owner of the first steamboat that ever lauded 
at Nashville (87) ; the man who inaugurated the movement for 
building the first railroad in Tennessee, and was long known as 
"Old Chattanooga" in consequence (88); the man who ex- 
changed a cow and calf for the hill on which the state capitol 
was afterwards built (89) ; the man who bought the ground dn 
which a large part of one of the most important cities in the 
state now stands, for a rifle, a mare and a pair of leather 
breeches (90); the discoverer of the Yosemite valley (91); the 
famous philanthropist who was chiefly instrumental in the found- 
ing of a state asylum for the insane (92) ; the author of the 
first bill for the establishment of a noi-mal school in Tennessee 
(93) ; and the patriotic citizen who erected, at his own expense, 
the first monument to the memory of John Sevier (94). 

A striking pair was composed of the man in whose veins cir- 
culated the blood of four races, and who simultaneously held 
commissions in the armies of three countries and was loyal to 
none (95) ; and the Choctaw chief who was graduated at the Uni- 
versity of Nashville, and of whom Charles Dickens has said 



Appendix. 143 

that he was "as stately and complete a gentleman, of nature's 
making," as he had ever met (96). Another pair, quite as 
striking, consisted of the first permanent settler at French Lick 
(97), conversing volubly in his own tongue with a royal person- 
age who visited Nashville in his youth, and afterwards became 
a king (98). 

Just then the presiding officer arose and gave a premonitory 
rap with his gavel. As he did so, I saw slipping furtively out 
of a rear door "the great western land pirate" (99), closely 
followed by the man who was instrumental in bringing him to 
justice (100). 



INTERPRETATION OF THE •' DREAM. 



(Nashville American, May 16, 1897. J 

1. James Robertson. 

2. George Roulstone. 

3. James Gattys McGregor Ramsey. 

4. Allen Anderson Hall. 

5. Elihu Embree. 

6. John Bell. 

7. William Blount. 

8. Alfred Osborn Pope Nicholson. 

9. Landon Carter Haynes. 

10. Gustavus Adolphus Henry. 

11. Meredith Poindexter Gentry. 

12. Daniel Smith. 

13. Thomas Hart Benton. 

14. Hugh Lawson White. 

15. Andrew Jackson. 



144 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

16. Thomas Jefferson. 

17. William Blount Carter. 

18. John Calvin Brown. 

19. Charles Johnson. 

20. Stephen Cabarrus. 

21. William Branch Giles. 

22. Samuel Livermore. 

23. Henry Washington Hilliard. 

24. Rachel Jackson. 

25. Mary Grrainger. 

26. Catharine (or Katherine) Sherrill. 

27. Margaret O'Neill (or O'Neal). 

28. Nancy Ward. 

29. George Washington. 

30. Marie Jean Paul Roche Yves Gilbert Motier de Lafayette. 

31. Thomas Walker. 

32. Estevan Miro. 

33. Francis Nash. 

34. Meriwether Lewis. 

35. Fernando (or Ferdinand or Hernando) DeSoto. 

36. Robert Cavelier de La Salle. 

37. John Campbell, Earl of Loudoun, 

38. Thomas Sharpe (or Sharp) Spencer. 

39. Abraham Castleman. 

40. John Donelson. 

41. Willie Jones. 

42. Russell Bean. 

43. Felix Robertson. 

44. James Leiper (or Leeper). 

45. Daniel Boone (or Boon). 

46. David Crockett. 

47. John Rains. 



Appendix. 145 



48. Samuel Doak, 

49. Ticlence Lane. 

50. Francis Asbury. 

51. Samuel Carrick. 

52. Moses Fisk (or Fiske). 

53. Philip Lindsloy. 

54. Matthew Fontaine Maury. 

55. Gerard Troost. 

56. Paul Fitzsimmons Eve. 

57. James Baxter Bean. 

58. John Catron. 

59. Felix Grundy. 

60. David Campbell. 
:61. Koger Brooke Taney. 

62. Samuel Spencer. 

63. John Haywood. 

64. Benjamin Franklin. 

65. Thomas Hughes. 

66. John Mitchel. 

67. Albert Pike. 

68. George Washington Harris. 

69. Samuel Houston. 

70. John Sevier. 

71. William Hall. 

72. Kobert Looney Caruthers. 

73. James Knox Polk. 

74. Andrew Johnson. 

75. James Chamberlain Jones. 

76. William Gannaway Brownlow. 

77. Edmund Rucker. 

78. Nathanael (or Nathaniel) Greene. 

79. John Coffee. 
10 



146 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

80. David Glasgow (or Glascoe) Farragut. 

81. Robert Armstrong. 

82. William Bowen Campbell. 

83. William Walker. 

84. John Adair. 

85. Montgomery Bell. 

86. Charles Roberson. 

87. William Carroll. 

88. James Overton. 

89. George Washington Campbell. 

90. David Shelby. 

91. Joseph Reddeford Walker. 

92. Dorothea Lynde Dix. 

93. Robert Hatton. 

94. Albigence Waldo Putnam. 

95. Alexander McGillivray (or McGilveray). 

96. Peter P. Pitchlynn. 

97. Timote (or Timothy) Derrionbreun. 

98. Louis Philippe. 

99. John Arnold Murrell. 
100. Virgil Adam Stewart. 

In the matter of the orthography of the foregoing names, lat- 
titude is allowed wherever it is proper to do so. For example, 
the famous " backwoodsman of Kentucky" was in the habit of 
signing his name -'Boon" or "Boone, "as the fancy struck 
him; Capt. Leiper was known as "Leiper" or "Leeper" in- 
differently, the latter having been the signature to the Cumber- 
land Compact ; the surname of ' ' Bonnie Kate " is always printed 
as "Sherrill" by historians (the " Sherril " of Putnam being 
manifestly a typographical error), although her father wrote 
his name "Sherrell"; that romantic scoundrel, Alexander Mc- 
Gillivray, was almost as versatile in the matter of autographic 



Appendix. 147 

variants of his famil}' name as was Shakespeare — Capt. Alli- 
son, in his "Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History," speaks 
of having examined two autograph letters, one of which is 
signed ' ' McGillivray " and the other ' ' McGilveray " ; the middle 
name of the ' ' big foot hunter "is " Sharpe "or " Sharp, " as may 
be; the Moses Fisk of histor}' appears in the catalog of Dart- 
mouth College as "Fiske"; and while the actual name of the 
' ' pretty Peggy " of Jackson's time seems unquestionably to have 
been Margaret O'Neill, Parton invariably prints it ' ' O'Neal. " On 
the other hand, there are several cases in which it is not at all diflS- 
cult to determine the absolutely accurate orthography. Instances 
are the Christian name of Meriwether Lewis, a facsimile of whose 
autograph may be found in Appleton's ' ' Cyclopedia of American 
Biography," and who invariably signed his name as it is here 
given, although the Tennessee legislature, with that faculty 
for blundering which seems an inevitable characteristic of Ten- 
nessee legislatures at all periods, inscribed his tombstone 
" Merriwether " ; the Earl of Loudoun, for any other spelling 
of whose name there is no shadow of authority; John Mitchel, 
the Irish patriot; Willie (pronounced "Wylie") Jones, whose 
Christian name many persons seem to regard as a diminutive 
of "William" (even Phelan makes this error); Demonbreun, 
which is the form the name of the pioneer of French Lick as- 
sumed when its bearer, who was "De Mont Breun" in France, 
came to America — the various curious shapes in which the 
name is given by Haywood and Ramsey being merely vagaries 
of the fancy of these worthies, who had an ingenuous habit, 
where proper names were concerned, of "spelling by ear"; and 
notably the "misspelled name" referred to in 32, which, given 
by Haywood, Ramsey and Putnam in various forms (all of 
them incorrect), is rightly given in Martin's history of Lou- 
isiana — unquestionable authority in all matters relating to that 



148 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

period. A photographic reproduction of Miro's autograph sig- 
nature may be found in a recent issue of that valuable publica- 
tion, Professor Garrett's "Magazine of American History." 
One name which is incorrectly printed in all the histories is that 
of Charles Roberson. Capt. John Allison informs me that the 
old court records at Jonesboro show that he invariably signed 
his name as I have given it above. It may be well here to 
state that the general belief that Charles Roberson was a rela- 
tive of Gen. James Robertson is incorrect. 

In connection with the identity of the editor referred to in 
4, attention may here properly be called to a remarkable blun- 
der in Crew's History of Nashville, where the positive assertion 
is made that Jeremiah George Harris, in 1840, "issued the 
first campaign paper ever issued west of the Alleghanies, 
named Advance Guard of the Democracy^ and this occasioned 
the issue from the oflBce of the Banner of The Spirit of '76, 
a Whig campaign paper. " This statement is the exact reverse 
of the fact, the first issue of The Spirit of "76 (Allen A. 
Hall's paper) having made its appearance March 14, 1840, 
while Harris's paper did not see the light until the 23d of the 
following April, it having evidently been suggested by, instead 
of suggesting, the rival campaign paper. This blunder is the 
more singular from the fact that bound volumes of both papers 
were easily accessible to the writer in the library of the Ten- 
nessee Historical Society — and he does not even give the name 
of Harris's paper correctly ! 

There can be no doubt that Elihu Embree was really the 
first abolition editor. To settle definitely a matter which all 
of the histories and biographical dictionaries (so far as I have 
examined, without exception) misstate — they invariably call 
Benjamin Lundy the pioneer in anti-slavery journalism — I 
quote here a passage from an extremely rare book — Lundy's 



Appendix. - 149 

Autobiography. After narrating his experiences in St. Louis, in 
1819, which caused his determination to return to his home in 
Ohio, Lundy says : ' ' Before I left St. Louis I heard that Elihu 
Embree had commenced the publication of an anti-slavery pa- 
per called ' The Emancipator ' at Jonesborough, in Tennessee ; 
but on my way home I was informed of the death of Embree, 
and I determined immediately to establish a periodical of my 
own. I therefore removed to Mount Pleasant [Ohio] and 
commenced the publication of ' The Genius of Universal Eman- 
cipation, ' in January, 1821. . . . When the friends of 
the deceased Embree heard of my paper they urged me to re- 
move to Tennessee and use the press on which his had been 
printed. I assented, and after having issued eight monthly 
numbers of the ' Genius ' I started for Tennessee. On my ar- 
rival I rented the printing office and immediately went to work 
with the paper. " 

Careless reading of Ramsey has led astray a large number 
of people with regard to the minister referred to in 49. Speak- 
ing of the expedition of Col. Christian for the relief of the 
Watauga settlers in 1772, Ramsey says : "The Rev. Charles 
Cummings accompanied the expedition as chaplain, and was 
thus the first Christian minister that ever preached in Tennes- 
see. " Granted — but while this is doubtless true, the question 
is not who "first preached in Tennessee," but who first 
"preached regularly to a Tennessee congregation," and that 
this was Tidence Lane, in 1779, is clearly demonstrated else- 
where by Ramsey. Goodspeed, indeed, using Ramsey's facts, 
but changing his language, asserts in terms that Cummings 
had charge of a congregation ' ' within the limits of the state " ; 
but Goodspeed is in error in this, as he is in very many other 
statements. In Park's "Historical Discourse," a work which 
is the result of the most careful and painstaking original 



150 Dropped Stitches in Tennessee History. 

research, the statement is explicitly made that the congrega- 
tion to which Gooclspeed refers as having enjoyed the minis- 
trations of Cummings ' ' in the Holston valley as early as 
1772," was really not located in Tennessee at all. It was "in 
Virginia, near the site of the present town of Abingdon." 
Dr. Park, himself a Presbyterian, would not be likely to fail 
to claim for a minister of his own denomination any credit 
justly due him. 

In order to be absolutely frank, I desire to correct an error — 
the only one, I believe, in the "Dream," and one fortunately 
of little moment. The man who "founded the first academy 
for females in Tennessee " (52) was not a classmate of Daniel 
Webster, as stated ; although the misstatement was made on 

what I considered good authority. 

R. L. C. White. 



IIMIDEDZX:. 



Allison, David— admitted to the bar, 4; subsequent career, 6. 

Anti-slavery agitation— begun early in Tennessee, 77. 

Avery, Waightstill— duel with Andrew Jackson, 110; life and character, 110; his 
favorite authority, 113. 

*' Bacon's Abridgment "—figures in a duel, 113; singular substitute for, 115. 

Bancroft, George— letter from, 17. 

Barker, Thomas— case of, 63; intervention of his wife, 66; place of burial, 68. 

Battle of New Orleans— unique account of, 107. 

Bean, Russell — character of, 119; cruelty to an infant, 119; arrested by Jackson, 120; 
reconciliation with his wife effected by Jackson, 121. 

Bell's tavern — Jackson's adventure at, 125. 

Boyd, Ben — rencontre with Andrew Jackson, 122; his involuntary bath, 124. 

British, hatred of the — its survival in East Tennessee, 108. 

Brown, x\.udrew Jackson — President Jackson's gift to, 132 (note). 

Centennial Dream— text of, 137; interpretation, 143. 

Church — first west of the Alleghanies, 25. 

Contested election— the first case west of the Alleghanies, 40. 

Conventions, early, 27, 28, 32. 

Corporatious, private— regulation of, 80. 

Courier and Enquirer, New York— quoted, 133; burned at Jonesboro, 134 (note). 

Court, the first held in Tennessee — oath taken by the members, 22; first session, 40; 
powers and jurisdiction, 57. 

Culton, Joseph— curious record concerning, 54. 

Cumberland Turnpike Company — incorporation of, 81. 

Currency, commissioners of, 48, 47. 

Debts, interest-bearing — early policy of the state opposed to, 72. 

Doak, Samuel— arrival in Tennessee, 24; founds Salem church and Washington 
college, 25. 

Dream, Centennial— text of, 137; interpretation, 143. 

Electors, presidential, in 1796— method of their selection, 97. 

Emancipation of slaves — early cases of, in Tennessee, 77; authority conferred on 
county courts, 78. 

Embree, Elihu— first abolition editor, 78 (note), 148. 

Fees of public oiTicers and attorneys — regulated by law, 73. 

Fire at Jonesboro — Andrew Jackson's share in extinguishing, 121; Ben Boyd's 
rencontre with Jackson, 122. 

Franklin, state of— inception, 27; organized, 29; boundaries, 29; extent, 30; early 
laws, 31: collapse, 35. 

Free and independent government, the first — its establishment, 20; its dissolution, 22. 

Fuller, Melville W. — on selection of presidential electors, 97. 

Greasy cove — famous horse-race in, 102. 

Hamilton, Joseph— admitted to the bar, 5; subsequent career, 6. 

Interpretation of the Centennial Dream, 143. 

Jackson, Andrew — errors of his biographers, 1, 2; arrival at Nashville, 1, 2, 4; ap- 
pointed United States district attornej', 3; admitted to the bar in Washington 
county, 4; contest with Sevier for Major General, 6; not a witness of Sevier's 
"rescue," 8, 9; advent at Jonesboro, 9; residence there, 10; characteristics as a 
lawyer, 11; incident at the Rogersville "tavern," 12; love of sport, 13, 101 ; ju- 



^\ 



152 Index. 

dicial administration, 101: his famous horse-race in Greasy cove, 102, 132: his 
fiery temper, 106; ovation on Broadway, 109, 135; duel with Avery, 110; another 
duel at Jonesboro, 117; arrest of Russell Bean, 120; as a volunteer fireman, 122; 
his moral courage, 125; ovation at Jonesboro, 128; his wonderful memory, 129; 
conspiracy against, 132. 

Jenkins, J. S. — life of Jaclcson quoted, 2. 

Jonesboro — district court at, 2; Andrew Jackson's residence there, 10; organization 
of the county court at, 22; conventions at, 27, 28; proceedings of the county 
court at, 39; Jackson's duels at. 111, 117; fire at, 121; ovation to Jackson at, 130. 

Legislation, early— examples of 69, 70, 73, 74, 77, 80. 

Love, Colonel— Jackson's famous horse-race with, 102. 

McCay, Spruce— his summary methods as a judge, 51; character, 52. 

McGillivray, Alexander— character of, 91, 93, 94; quoted, 92, 93. 

MeNairy, John- admitted to the bar, 5; subsequent career, 6. 

Mecklenburg " resolves " — letter from Bancroft concerning, 17. 

Mero district — created, 87; correct orthography of the name, 87; name discon- 
tinued, 96. 

" Minlj skins "—origin of the term, as applied to currency, 31. 

Miro, Estevan— character of, 88, 96; services, 89, 92, 95; quoted, 92, 94. 

New Orleans, battle of — unique account of, 107. 

Nolichucky River Compau}-- incorporation of, 80. 

Orthography of " Jliro," 87. 

Ovations to Andrew Jackson— on Broadway, New York, 109, 135; at Jonesboro, 128. 

Parton, James— life of Jackson quoted, 2, 123, 1.35. 

Pensions to soldiers— granted by Tennessee before action by the United States gov- 
ernment, 70. 72. 

Presidential electors in 1796 — method of their selection, 97. 

Printing press— first in Tennessee and second west of the Alleghanies, established 
at Rcgcrsville, 36. 

Pugh, John, "Regulator" and sheriff, 18. 

Pybourn, Elias— severe punishment of, 53. 

Reid, John — life of Jackson quoted, 1. 

Roane, Archibald— admitted to the bar. 4; subsequent career, 5, 6. 

Roberson, Charles— father-in-law of Russell Bean, 119; Parton's injustice to, 121. 

Robertson, James — suggests name of Miro district, 87. 

Roulstone, George — established first printing press, 36. 

Salem church— founding of. 25. 

School, first, west of the Alleghanies, 25. 

Settlers, the early — life, habits and characteristics, 15, 16, 18, 24. 

Sevier, James— clerk of Washington county court, 33; unique record of, 34. 

Sevier, John— contest with Jackson for Major General, 6; subsequent career, 7; his 
"rescue "at Morganton, 8; contest for clerk, 40; commissioner of currency, 46, 
47, 48. 

Slaves, emancipation of— early cases in Tennessee, 77; authority conferred on county 
courts, 78. 

Specie contracts — regulation of, 74. 

Taylor, Christopher- friend of Andrew Jackson, 11. 

Tennessee county— created, 86; divided, 86. 

Treason — early trials for, 42, 43, 63. 

Washington college— founding of, 25. 

Watson, Sir Thomas— visit to Washington county, 108. 

Wilson, Thomas J. — quoted, 78 (note). 



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